


Bring the Sea to me

by Hellenaa



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, College!Eren, Eventual Smut, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Mermaid!Levi, Titan hair eren, grumpy mermaid, hydrophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-09
Updated: 2014-06-07
Packaged: 2018-01-11 18:41:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 40,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1176545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hellenaa/pseuds/Hellenaa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren and Mikasa were adopted by Hanji eight years ago, she gave them a life to live. Hanji works as a Marine Biologist and wants to show Eren her amazing new find. Which happens to be a black haired merman with cold eyes and a deathly stare. To top it all off she's put Eren in charge of studying him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> IT TOOK ME HOURS TO FIGURE OUT A TITLE.  
> Well, despite the amount of time it took me to figure out the title I finally got it haha.  
> Tell me what you think!
> 
> Hellenaa does all the story writing  
> LiquidLithium does all the editing

              “Yoohoo!” an eccentric voice rattled through the two-story town house I called home.

              Mikasa and I were sitting in front of the television watching Supernatural as our “guardian” dropped bags of McDonalds on the coffee table in front of us.

              “Dinner is served.” She smiled and plopped herself down right in between us.

              I grunted as I moved over to make room for her. “Hanji, you don’t have to bring take out home every day for dinner, you know. We’re old enough to take care of ourselves,” I huffed.

              She turned to me and gave me slight shove before reaching into one of the bags and pulling out two burgers.

              Hanji had saved Mikasa and me when we were kids. Our mom had died of breast cancer when we were ten and our dad was nowhere to be found, so we were left in the hands of foster care. Mikasa was fine; she was the perfect child. Me? Well, I got into loads of trouble. We ended up moving from house to house for the next two years—some good houses, some shitty houses.

              I ran away at some point during our last house and, of course, Mikasa had followed me. She had absolutely refused to let child services separate us. We had ran far, and no one could find us for around six months. Until I literally ran right into Hanji, who was just fresh out of college at the time with a major in aquatic science. She was the most talkative person I had ever met. Mikasa had apologized for me and was trying to pull me away when Hanji stopped us.

              “You two look hungry, why not come and eat something?” she had offered us. We didn’t want to, but we were starving, so we had gone home with her. Hanji had managed to figure out that we were runaways. At that point, Mikasa and I were a little freaked out; we didn’t want to be reported. Then, when Hanji proposed that she adopt us, it caused more fear. Though she didn’t seem all that bad, so after a little talking and Mikasa warning me about the dangers, we decided that if everything went downhill we would run away again.

              A lot of legal issues later and we were living with Hanji. She already had a job lined up, so financials were no problem. On top of that, she decided to homeschool us (I assumed because we didn’t want anything to do with other people and hadn’t seen the inside of a school in years). When I look back on it, behind her smile, she must have been really exhausted. I’m grateful to her, though.

              I leaned into the couch and brought my burger to my mouth, taking a large bite.

              “Mikasa, Eren,” Hanji started, gaining both of our attention. “I’m going on a journey, so I won’t be home for a while!” She lifted her hands in the air and laughed.

              I rolled my eyes. “Have fun, Hanji. Just make sure to pay the bills before you leave.” I put my burger down in its cardboard container and grabbed my drink.

              She quickly turned to me and grabbed my shoulders, that insane look in her eyes again. “You don’t even know, Eren!” she hollered. “There’s been rumours of mermaids!”

              I snorted and shook her hands off. “You’re nuts, Hanji.” I scoffed, shoving fries in my mouth as Hanji grumbled about mythical creatures and no one believing her. When I finished, I grabbed my garbage and threw it in the trash bin in the kitchen before heading upstairs to work on a paper that was due on Monday. Hours passed and soon it was passed midnight, Hanji and Mikasa had gone to sleep and my eyes were starting to blur. Closing my laptop, I pushed my chair back and got up, stripped myself of my uncomfortable jeans and socks, and fell into bed. I closed my eyes and groaned when I realized I forgot the light, pushing myself up I switched the lamp off and plopped back down. Letting the darkness consume me.

 

              I rolled over countless times before I actually opened my eyes and got out of bed; it was noon and Hanji was already gone. I threw on some sweat pants and shuffled downstairs. Seemed Mikasa was either still asleep or had gone out, but the latter seemed more likely. I poured a bowl of cereal and was just crossing the hall to the living room when a knock at the door sounded. Shoving a spoonful of frosty flakes into my mouth, I made my way down the hall and opened the front door.

              The bouncy blonde didn’t even ask as he walked inside. “Hey, Eren!” he cheerfully said as he took his shoes off and walked into the living room.

              I mumbled a greeting back to him and followed, shoving another spoonful into my mouth. “I gotta love your random visits, Armin.” I said through the food in my mouth.

              Armin gave me a disappointed look before smiling. “Of course you do. Hanji at work?” he asked and I nodded swallowing my food before speaking again.

              “Yeah, she won’t be home for a while. On some sort of trip. I wasn’t really listening, but she said something about mermaids.” I chuckled and Armin laughed a little, too. I finished up my cereal while Armin watched T.V. Mikasa was definitely out ‘cause if she were at home she would have shown herself already.

              “Hey, Eren, you’re gonna be twenty-one soon, aren’t you?” Armin asked me and I looked at him questioningly for a moment before I realized that it was the end of February.

              “Holy shit, yeah, I am.” I laughed at having forgotten the date. I stood up and brought my empty bowl to the kitchen and rinsed it out before throwing it in the dishwasher. “Wanna do anything?” I called from the kitchen, I heard the T.V. turn off and Armin was soon in the kitchen with me, grabbing a bottle of water.

              “Yeah, sure,” he answered. “Going out or staying in?”

              I thought about it for a moment. There wasn’t really anything I wanted to do here, so I shrugged and said, “Let’s go out. I’ll be right back,” before heading upstairs.

              I stripped out of my sweat pants and ratty t-shirt and traded them for black jeans and a grey t-shirt, slipping on my watch. I grabbed my dark blue sweater (Mikasa would argue that it was ‘Prussian blue’ since she was an art major). I was about to leave the room when I realized I forgot my wallet, turning back I grabbed it and shoved it in my back pocket. Catching myself in the mirror, I didn’t realize that I probably had bed-head, so I ran my fingers through my hair and smoothed it out.

              “Okay, ready to go!” I yelled as I hit the bottom step.

              Armin came out of the kitchen and slipped on his shoes while I reached for mine. “I was thinking maybe we could check out this bookst-”

              I waved my hands around, cutting him off. “I wanna have fun Armin, not fall back to sleep!” I laughed and he gave me a little glare as he swung the door open.

              We ended up going to the mall, lounging around and looking through shops for hours. I did eventually give in and let Armin drag me into a bookstore and shook my head as we left with ten books on archeology and deep sea creatures. I bought a couple of things, as well, but nothing big or necessary; just things I thought were cool.

              “Man, I’m hungry,” I groaned and rubbed my stomach.

              Armin laughed and grabbed my arm pulling me in the direction of the cafeteria. “Then let’s go eat. My treat,” he sang.

              It took us a bit to decide on a place to eat but we ended up at Subway. In the middle of our meal Armin jumped a little and pulled his phone out, I’d realized then that I’d forgotten mine. Armin laughed and handed the phone to me.

              “It’s Mikasa, she’s wondering where you are,” he said with a smirk.

              I grabbed the phone and typed back that it was me and that Armin and I were at the mall. I didn’t get a text back, so I figured she only wanted to know where I was, but before I knew it she was sitting down next to us at our table.

              I looked at her and gasped. “You cut your hair!” I exclaimed.

              She nodded. “Does it look okay?” she asked, reaching up and touching it.

              Both me and Armin nodded.

              “It looks awesome,” Armin said.

              I offered Mikasa half my sub and she took it, before she took a bite though she looked at me. “You also need a haircut, it’s longer than mine now,” She observed.

              I shrugged and brought my hand up to my hair it was pretty long but I didn’t mind it. “I like it like this,” I retorted, biting into my sub.

              She sighed quietly and started eating her half. “Hanji said she’d be back on Monday night, right?” Mikasa asked.

              I nodded. “Yeah, something like that.”

              We threw our trash out and started heading towards the exit of the mall.

              “Oh, Mikasa, I bought you something.” I stopped and reached into the shopping bags and she turned around and looked at me questioningly. I pulled out a light pink jacket and handed it to her.

              “I thought it would look nice on you. Think of it as a late birthday present… even though I already got you something,” I said sheepishly.

              She took the tags off and put it on. It went just past her waist and hugged her slim frame nicely, and with the white dress she was wearing it looked exceptional. She flashed me a rare smile and thanked me before we started towards our cars.

              “Were you with Annie earlier?” I asked her as we walked toward our cars.

              She nodded, not really bothering to say anything.

              Annie and Mikasa were together and I honestly had no idea how they communicated their emotions to each other since they both seemed to keep everything bottled up. I didn’t care much for gender; if I liked someone I liked them, simple as that. Though I’ve never actually been with anyone. Mikasa seemed pretty happy with Annie, so that was good. We didn’t bother saying goodbye as we were both heading home, and we’d see each other in ten minutes.

              Armin and I talked about meaningless things to pass the time on the drive home from the mall. I dropped him off at his house, and by the time I made it home Mikasa was already in the house. As soon as I walked in the door, the house phone rang, so I rushed over to grab it only to instantly pull the phone away from my ear as that ever-so-familiar, over-joyed voice rang through.

              “We spotted them! We spotted them!” she sang.

              I laughed, never failing to get caught up in her mania. “Spotted what Hanji?” I asked.

              Her voice dropped really low and she whispered, “Mermaids,” she paused for dramatic effect, “and mermen.”

              My eyebrows furrowed and I couldn't help but think that this had to be a joke. Mermaids didn’t actually exist, but Hanji sounded dead serious right now.

              “What are you planning on doing now that you’ve found them?” I asked.

              She giggled. “I plan on capturing one! I’m going to bring it back and study it!” she cried. “Of course, I can’t do anything to harm it, nor will I let anyone else harm it. When I get back you can come and see it if you want.”

              I smiled and gave her a hurried “yes” before saying goodbye.

              “Was that Hanji?” Mikasa asked from the top of the stairs.

              I nodded and started heading up with my shopping bags. “She found mermaids,” I said and Mikasa looked at me with doubtful eyes. I just laughed and shrugged before heading to my room to finish my paper. Mikasa called me down for dinner at some point and I took it upstairs to continue working. I don’t remember when I fell asleep but I know that I didn’t make it to my bed before I passed out.

 

              The next few days didn’t go nearly as eventful as the previous, all I did was finish my paper and watch television. When daytime T.V. started to lose its appeal, I decided to try watching the fourth Pirates of Caribbean—the one about the mermaids. Mikasa joined me on the couch to watch it, too, along with a bowl of popcorn.

              I turned in early, hoping I would get enough sleep for my classes tomorrow, so I said goodnight to Mikasa and headed up to my room, reading over my paper one more time before getting ready for bed. I couldn’t help but wonder if Hanji would actually be able to get a mermaid. I rolled onto my stomach and soon darkness had me.

              When I woke up, I could still remember vague depictions of mermaids and sailors from my dreams. There was no doubt that I had mythological sea creatures on the brain after yesterday. However, I could also remember that they were not pleasant. They sang and screamed and tried to kill whoever they could. It was a nightmare.

              The next day was even more unvaried than the previous. I spent some of the day on campus, handed in my paper, sat through my classes, and took notes. I knew that Hanji would be home soon, so I tried to get some rest before she inevitably barged into the house with a cacophony of rushed sentences and laughter.

              “Eren!”

              I groaned and rolled over.

              “Come on, Eren! He’s at the lab!”

              I grumbled and sat up, rubbing my eyes and staring at Hanji’s euphoric face.

              “What are you even talking about?” I growled, extremely unhappy I was woken up, since I didn’t have class today until three o’clock. It was nine in the morning. I should’ve expected she would barge into my room—well, I did expect it, actually—but I still wanted to sleep. Sleep was great.

              “I caught a merman and he’s quite a looker!” she cried out while dragging me out of bed, turning us into a mass of limbs as I tried to fight her off and stay on my feet at the same time.

              “Okay, okay!” I screamed as I pushed Hanji out of my room before she could notice my morning wood. I flopped back down on the bed face first and almost fell back to sleep when I remembered that I really wanted to see that mermaid. Or merman. Whatever you want to call it. I pushed myself back up and got dressed in a light gray long-sleeved shirt, black jeans, and a black vest.

              I tried to get something to eat in the kitchen, but Hanji was dragging me out the door before I could even try to open the fridge. I did manage to holler a goodbye to Mikasa right as the door shut, though.

              “Mmm, I think you’ll like him. He’s very pretty. Well, his facial expression could use a little work, but I just assume he’s not very happy.” Hanji went on and on about things I didn’t feel like listening to, so I zoned her out as we made our way to the lab under the aquarium.

              We parked in the back and went through the “employees only” door. Inside, there were another two doors, one with a keypad lock and another that was left wide open. Hanji led me to the keypad-locked door and typed in a series of numbers that I could never catch no matter how hard I tried. Almost immediately after the door there was a set of stairs leading down that Hanji started to pull me down.

              I nodded greetings to the other workers as we passed them, none of them really seeming to mind that I came to see what they were doing.

              “He’s in here,” Hanji announced and grabbed me by the arm pulling me into a side room.

              As soon as we walked in, I was met with a large wall of glass that looked into a large tank. My eyes widened when I saw what was inside. A dark blue tail, accompanied by long black hair, with a torso that looked surprisingly muscular, as well. He had come towards the glass when we came in and Hanji was right, he didn’t look happy at all. I could see thin webs between his fingers as I walked over to the glass and his eyes followed me warily. Bringing my hand up, I pressed it to the glass, but that only seemed to upset him as he bared his teeth—which gave me a view of notably sharp incisors—and swam away. I looked at Hanji and she was just delighted; she looked so proud of herself.

              “He’s definitely something,” I said as I turned towards the stairs that would bring me to the top of the tank. I looked back and saw that another scientist had came in and was talking to Hanji.

              “Eren, don’t touch anything. I’ll be back,” she called up to me.

              I waved her off and told her I’d be fine, and I heard the door click shut as I reached the top of the stairs. Looking down into the tank was a lot less clearer than looking into the glass, but I could see that he was swimming around languidly. Sitting down at the edge of the platform, I folded my legs and brought my hand out toward the water.

              “Wonder what it feels like,” I whispered to myself, moving my fingers around. I saw black peek out of the surface of the water and dropped my hand into my lap when I noticed that he was looking at me. Now that his hair was flat, I could see small pointed ears. His glare hadn’t lessened one bit from earlier and that only intrigued me more.

              “Do you understand me?” I asked carefully. His eyes narrowed and he disappeared back under the water. There was a possibility that he did understand me, he looked like the type to ignore people.

              “Eren!” Hanji bellowed from the bottom of the stairs.

              I jumped at the noise, having forgotten she was here. “Yeah?” I replied, getting up and heading down the stairs.

              “Has he said or done anything?” she inquired, pulling out a notebook and a pen.

              I shuffled from one foot to the other, glancing at him before replying. “He acknowledged that I said something to him.”

              Her eyes lit up and she scribbled furiously in the book. Snapping it closed she looked at me, something seemed to be processing in her mind as she stared at me. “I’ve got it!” she shouted and handed me the book and pen. “I’m going to put you in charge of him.” She smiled at me and my stomach dropped.

              “I-uh-er-I… what?!” I stumbled over my words. “What am I supposed to do?” I questioned her.

              She simply laughed and looked through the tank glass at the merman. “Just observe him, see what he does, try to interact with him if you can, figure out what he likes to eat.” She stopped for a second and looked over at me, noticing my horrified expression. “I’ll check in on you, obviously, Eren. Think of this as an internship. In fact, that’s exactly what it is. Spend as much time here as you can.”

              With that, Hanji nodded and was gone again. I looked at the book and then at the merman in the tank. He had been looking at me until I met eyes with him, which caused him to look away and start swimming around again. Was he just as interested in us as we were in him?


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hellenaa does all the story writing  
> LiquidLithium does all the editing
> 
> Oh man I couldn't have had this amazing of writing if it weren't for liquid, she is an amazing editor, just wow.
> 
> I'd like to thank you all for the amazing comments and feedback and ahh it's all wonderful~ :D

          The week went by with no progress. Well, I figured out that, yes, he did like fish, but he also ate other things. It had been hard enough to figure out what he ate when he refused to acknowledge anything I said or did. Halfway through the week I started bringing my school work to the lab so I could watch him more. I was starting to lose hope that I would get progress at all, so on Friday I decided to sleep there.

“Hello again, today,” I said as I closed the door. My classes were finished for the day and I’d gone home to get pillows, blankets, and anything else I needed. I brought my bags up the stairs and put them against the wall, away from the tank. I wanted to try something different today. Instead of just giving him a fish, I wanted to see if he’d try sushi. Hanji had made it from the same fish we would have given him, anyway. I dug around in my bag and pulled out the container.

I walked over to the edge and sat down, he’d peek his head up soon. Lately I’d caught his eyes following me around, though if he saw me looking back he’d usually look away after a brief glare. He peeked his head up and looked at the container I’d now opened.

“It’s fish, same fish we give you but different,” I spoke carefully. Half the container held the fish wrapped in seaweed, the other half held fried fish. I put the container near the ledge and moved away a little.

“Try it?” I asked, he looked at it for a long time, probably trying to decide if it would kill him or not. I was about to just get him a regular fish when he came right up to the ledge and took some. His webbed fingers wrapping delicately around a piece of fish. Popping it in his mouth he chewed cautiously, his eyes widened slightly and he grabbed another one.

“I guess it’s good, then.” I smiled at him and brought out the notebook and jotted down that he enjoyed the fish wrapped in seaweed. I glanced up and he was inspecting a piece of fried fish. I watched him as he cautiously put it in his mouth, face contorting at the different taste compared to the raw fish. He didn’t spit it out or seem to hate it. Once he’d finished that one he grabbed the rest and went underwater.

“Huh...”  I laughed and put the new information into the book. This was the longest he had stayed above the water. I figured I would get Hanji to teach me how to make the fish so I could make him more. I closed the container and tossed it behind me. Leaning forward, I dipped my hand and swirled it around in the water, almost falling in when a loud voice came from below.

“Eren! You in here?” Hanji called up and I replied with a loud yes.

          She walked up the steps, eyes alight with happiness. “Did he eat the sushi?” She asked, and I returned my hand to the water and nodded.

“He seemed to like it, stayed above water for a while, too. He doesn’t seem to glare at me too much, anymore.” I laughed a little, and she smiled.

“That’s good. He still glares at me. I knew it was a good decision to put you in charge of him.” She slapped me on the back and turned around, heading down the stairs and out of the room.

Wiping my hand on my pants, I stood up and started unpacking my pillows and blankets. I had already gotten permission to stay for the weekend and Hanji had told me that the only person who would be here would be the security guard and that he would check on me before I went to sleep, but would otherwise leave me alone.

I unfolded the small, squishy bed mat and placed it down before putting a blanket over it, placing my pillows at the top and placing another blanket over that. Standing up, I admired my work; it looked relatively comfortable. I had to do some work, so I took out my laptop and leaned against the wall, occasionally looking over the top to see if the merman was up. I caught him once looking at the laptop with confusion; I bet he had no clue what it was. Once he’d caught me staring at him, though, he went back under and didn’t come back up.

At some point after Hanji’s shift ended, she went out and grabbed me a small pizza to eat for myself along with some Sprite.

          "Anything else you need?” She asked. “I’m going home after this.”

          I shook my head and thanked her for the food. Continuing to tap away again as Hanji left. Soon the major lights were off and there was only enough for everything to be just visible. Hours passed and I almost finished what I was working on when my eyes started to get heavy and blurry. Closing the laptop, I stretched and stood up, glancing over to the tank. The dim light over it made it look cool, and I could see the merman idly floating on the surface with his arms behind his head and his eyes closed. It looked like a real life painting.

“Goodnight,” I said hesitantly, and one of his eyes opened as he looked in my direction. I knew he wouldn’t say anything so I just started crawling under my blanket, and I was right, he just closed his eyes again. My eyes drifted closed and I was asleep in minutes.

My back hurt, that much was obvious when I woke. God damn, did it ever hurt. Sitting up and rubbing my eyes, I saw that the lights were on in the room and my phone displayed a bright “9:43 A.M.” when I unlocked the screen. I stood and stretched, almost stepping on a new container beside my makeshift bed. It held more sushi and fried fish; Hanji had made enough for two days. I looked over to the ledge and he was there, glaring at the container.

“Guess you’re hungry, huh?” I mused, walking over and opening up the container, his eyes following every move. I reached in and grabbed a piece of sushi and held it out to him, but he didn’t seem to want to take it from me.

“It’s the same as yesterday’s, go ahead.” I pushed my hand out farther and he snatched it from my hand. I laughed and grabbed a few more, holding it out to him. This time he took them more gently and held them in his hands while he chewed the other one. I wanted to talk to him, even if it was one-sided.

“I guess it sucks, being in here,” I began. “Once Hanji gets all the info she wants, I’ll try and get you back out to the sea. I’m sure she’d be fine with it. I’m Eren, by the way. I don’t even know if you can understand me.” I sat down, my knees had been killing me from kneeling down.

“I’ve no clue why she wanted me to watch you. I’m surprised, to be honest. Guess it’s a good experience for me, though. I’m studying for marine biology like Hanji.” I shrugged, he had finished what he had and was looking at the container again, an irritated look on his face. Taking some of the fried fish, I handed them to him before replacing the lid saving the rest for later today and tomorrow.

My stomach growled, so I stood and grabbed my cell phone and wallet before heading down the steps and out the door.

“I’ll be back later,” I called up to him as I opened the door. I made my way through the lab and asked someone for the code before I left; Hanji had forgotten to give it to me. Once I was out of the building, I got in my car and made my way to a cafe. I ordered two bagels and a hot chocolate, deciding on sitting inside and texting Armin.

‘Hey, Armin. What’s up?’ I sent him

‘Nothing really, reading a book. You?’

‘How like you. I’m just eating breakfast before heading back to the lab’

‘planning to spend another night there right?’

‘yup’

We mostly talked about boring things, and my replies stopped coming as fast since I was trying to eat my bagels before they went cold. After I took the last sip of my drink, I stood up and left the cafe, heading towards my car and heading back to the lab. I almost forgot the code by the time I got there. I was heading down the steps and across the lab when I heard a strange sound. Kind of like a cat hissing.

“Hold him still, I can’t take measurements like this!” Hanji’s voice, sounding distressed, was the first thing I heard when I opened the door. I looked to the top of the water in the tank and his tail was flailing around violently, the hissing was louder. I bolted up the stairs and was horrified by what I saw. Two scientists were holding him by his arms out of the water while Hanji was trying to wrap a measuring tape around his tail. His teeth were bared like a snarling dog and I realized that the hissing was coming from him.

“Stop!” I yelled, and shoved one of the scientists holding him. He lost his grip and the disruption in the hold caused the other one to lose his grip, as well. The merman splashed back into the water, getting me and everyone else wet, and I turned and glared at Hanji.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing!?” I screamed, and her eyes widened in surprise. “You said I was to watch him and gather information, right? So, I’m not gonna let you interfere. Do not touch him without my permission. I know your experience outweighs mine, but you should really know better than this.” At this point, I had raised my voice even higher and had noticed that Hanji looked a little defeated.

“I just want to know more about him,” she pleaded, almost begged. I understood her fascination with him--I really did. He interested me, too, but she really needed to change her approach to this.

“I’ll get you the information you want, just give me time,” I reassured her.

She nodded, motioning for everyone to clear the room before she gently clasped my wrist in her hands. “Eren,” she said so softly I could barely hear her. “Please don’t think less of me.”

          Once everyone was gone, I sank to the floor with a sigh heavy on my lips and let my eyes drift closed while I tried to calm my racing heart. When I opened my eyes again, he was right in front of me and a strangled gasp caught in my throat. He was glaring at me again; progress lost. When I was about to look away from him, my eyes caught the light red marks marring his skin.

“They really held you down tightly,” I whispered, looking back to his face, his glare not quite reaching his eyes this time. “Fucking bastards. I’m sorry. That won’t happen again.”

          He stared at me a little longer before giving a barely noticeable nod and diving back underwater. For a moment, I was stunned. He had nodded at me. It was barely there, but he… he actually nodded at me. I scrambled over to my makeshift bed and grabbed my notebook, jotting the date and what happened down.

          He didn’t come above water for the rest of the day until he was hungry. When he did, I gave him the rest of today’s sushi and fried fish and he went back underwater with them. I was still regretting what had happened to him earlier with Hanji. I really wished I had brought my breakfast back with me to the lab instead of staying in the cafe. I thought that, maybe, if I had been here, then none of that would’ve happened. I wished I could change what had happened, but all I could hope for now was that he didn’t hate me, so I resigned to quietly doing my work while he stayed below the surface of the water.

          It took me a couple hours, but I had finally finished with my work and was sitting at the edge of the tank, staring into the water. Hanji had come in at one point to bring me some food before heading home, being cautious about being too close to the tank. The merman, I noticed, had slunk to the bottom of the tank when Hanji had came in, trying to get as far away from her as he could. Honestly, I didn’t blame him; I was a little disappointed, myself. Once Hanji was gone, I was already halfway through my sub and the merman came back up to watch me. I swallowed my bite and glanced at him, and his eyes narrowed, but he didn’t stop staring. I made a note of this. He usually turned away or broke eye contact when I looked at him. I entertained myself for a little while longer by dangling my feet in the water, and he made a point not to come near me, so I simply wrote down what he was doing before I crawled into bed.

          "Goodnight,” I said, my voice hoarse with needed sleep.

          He was at the edge, watching me again. My eyes felt too heavy to keep them open anymore and I gladly let them slip closed.

          “Goodnight, human.”

          I hadn’t heard this voice before. I wanted to check, to see who it was, but I was already falling fast asleep before I could open my eyes again.

          “Hey, human.” I didn’t recognize the voice, was I still dreaming? I heard a heavy sigh as I rolled over to face the tank, my eyes still closed. “Hey,” a pause, “Eren!” A splash of water hit my face and I darted up. My eyes falling on the merman, mouth open as I stared at him. What the hell was going on?

          “Are you going to stare at me like I’m a shark or are you going to answer back?” He rested his arms on the ledge, looking at me expectantly.

          I snapped my mouth shut and slid across the floor, over to him. “What made you start talking now?” I asked, genuinely interested in the change.

          He looked away before answering, intent on not looking at me. “I want to get out of here, so the easiest way to do that is to help you,” he stated simply, still looking away.

          I smiled, excited to hear the change of heart. Well, thrilled, really. This was fantastic news!

          “Okay, first then, could you sit on the ledge so I can take measurements of your tail?” I asked, running over to the tool closet and grabbing a measuring tape. On the way back, I grabbed my notebook and a pen. He was already on the ledge, leaning back on his arms calmly. It took around fifteen minutes to get all the measurements Hanji would want, and by the end I noticed he was having trouble breathing.

          “Are you okay?” I asked him.

          He nodded. “I’m fine. Just not in the water enough, but not out of the water enough,” he answered.

          I was left a little confused. I wasn’t exactly sure what he had meant and my thoughts traced back to a movie where the mermaids slowly died being half out of the water. Shaking my head, I dispelled the thought. It was just a movie and this was real life, surely it held no merit on what was actually happening.

          I told him I was done and he slipped back in the water. I wrote down that he had trouble breathing after a certain time.

          “Levi,” he said, getting my attention again.

          I looked at him questioningly.

          “My name is Levi.”

          I smiled at him and he just rolled his eyes. He seemed to become more and more interesting every day. Not just because he wasn’t human, but because his personality seemed to be like a human’s.

          “Are you hungry?” I asked him and he nodded.

          I stood up and went over to the container, grabbing it and opening it while I walked back over to Levi. I handed him the container and he ate the fish at the ledge.

          “What is this?” He asked in between pieces, gesturing to the container that held his food. I laughed and he shot me a glare.

          “It’s a plastic container. Basically it’s just made to hold things,” I answered and watched as he studied it, seemingly satisfied when he started eating again. I watched him, picturing what he would look like with short hair. I thought that it might suit him better. “Is there anything to cut your hair in the sea?” I asked him and he shook his head.

          “Not really,” he said, tugging at his hair with one hand. “It gets in the way, though. Slows down swimming. Yet humans choose to have long hair. I don’t understand why.”

          “I could cut it for you,” I offered and he shot me a small glare before debating the option.

          “Maybe soon, but not now. All the humans are despicable. You are, too,” he added, “but you’re not as bad as them.”

          I smiled and stood up. I had to pack my things up since I had classes tomorrow. I had one week left until spring break, and I felt like I might end up spending all of it here. I waved goodbye to him before heading down the stairs, my eyes catching his tail as I made it to the bottom of the steps, wondering what it was like to swim since, well, I couldn’t swim.

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wooo!! Lots of stuff in this chapter!!
> 
> but first before you go into reading it, check out Lithi's first chapter to her fanfiction!! [Turning Point](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1184888)

         Hanji knew that Levi was cooperating now and listening to me, but I had yet to tell her that he was speaking to me. I couldn’t seem to find the right time to tell her. I honestly didn’t really want to tell her quite yet anyway; she would probably jump right in the tank with him, which was not a good idea. I had started making Levi his sushi, adding different seasonings to see what he liked.

         Over the past couple days I’d managed to get Levi to talk a bit about his life, instead of me just ranting on about mine.

         “We make weapons—spears, I think you humans call them—for hunting,” he explained.

         “What do you make them out of?” I leaned forward, as if at any moment my hearing would disappear and I wouldn’t be able to hear him anymore.

         “Bones, mostly, ” he stated simply.

         I was more than a little alarmed at how calmly he was able to say that, but then again my mind ran on human standards. His did not.

         “How can you speak English?” I laughed nervously when he shot me a look. “Final question.” I’d been asking him question after question all morning.

         “Long time ago, some human taught it to one of us, and it just got passed down. We don’t speak it much, so a lot of us have forgotten it.”

         I nodded, wondering what they sounded like when communicating with each other, but that would have to wait. Hanji wanted to know how much he weighed and I couldn’t do that by myself, so I had to go get Hanji and a couple of others help.

         “I’ll be right back, Hanji wants to know how heavy you are and, well, I can’t really get the machine up here myself,” I said, standing up and making my way down the stairs and out the door to ask for help.

 

         “Okay, phew! That was a workout!” Hanji exclaimed, wiping her brow. Since we couldn’t really just put Levi on a normal scale, we needed to bring in the special one which was rather heavy and had to be brought up a flight of stairs.

         “Now that this part’s done, let’s get him out, shall we?” She looked at me and smiled, and before I could stop her she had reached her hand towards Levi. His face had changed into a scowl—the beginnings of a hiss. Once she got close enough, he snapped at her, biting her hand just enough to leave two shallow holes.

         She yanked her hand back and let out a yelp in surprise as she crumpled to the floor on her knees.

         “Hanji! Are you okay?” I asked hurriedly, watching her cradle her hand in front of her. When she started to shake soon after, I was worried the bite had done something to her. I set my hand on her back and as I was about to ask her is she was okay, she started to giggle like a madwoman. I backed away from her, unsure of what was going on. There was a small amount of blood now dripping down her hand, but she either paid no attention to it or didn’t mind it at all.

         Suddenly standing up and turning towards us, she looked at us with a crazed look in her eyes. “He bit me!” she cried and twirled around. “Oh, my god! This is wonderful! Just marvelous! He bit me!”

         “Uh, Hanji?” I asked carefully, and she quickly turned her head to look at me, the smile on her face wide with joy.

         “Yes, Eren?” she replied, voice sounding giddy.

         “I’ll take care of getting him out, you just,” I paused, “keep your distance.”

         One of the other scientists had gotten a first-aid kit for Hanji and was now wrapping up her hand, much to her dismay.

         Bending down, I held my arms out. “Wrap your arms around my neck so I can lift you out.”

         He gave me an unimpressed look before wrapping his arms around me. I knew I would get wet from this, but I didn’t really mind.

         He was heavy, and kind of slimy. I lifted him out and adjusted my hold so my hands were cupped under what would be his ass if he were human. Pulling him out of the tank had soaked my shoes and my pants entirely. He was really heavy, and I figured it had to be the weight of his tail.

         The other scientists, including Hanji, were watching intently. I knew Levi wouldn’t let them touch him. Hell, I’m surprised he let me touch him.

         I strained to get him over to the scale, but did eventually get there. I was trying to move as quickly and carefully as possible. I didn’t want to have him out of the water for too long or who knew what would happen then.

         “One hundred eighty-three pounds,” Hanji read off the scale. I wrote the weight down in my notebook, snapping it shut and handing it to Hanji so I could move Levi back into the tank.

         “I won’t be recording anything else today, so you can take the notebook and look it over,” I said, circling around the scale so I could get a better hold on Levi. Once I had a steady grip on him, the others grabbed the scale and started to carefully make their way down the stairs.

         “I’ll see you after my shift is over, Eren,” Hanji called up before closing the door as they left.

         “Thank the angel fish that they’re gone,” Levi grumbled, arms tight around my neck.

         I laughed.

         Distracted as I was lowering Levi back into the tank as carefully as I could, I slipped on the wet floor and fell into the tank, dropping Levi in the process.

         I had no time to react, just enough to realize what was happening.

          _No._

         The last time I went swimming, I ended up sinking to the bottom of the pool. I didn’t know what was happening. I was sinking too fast to compensate, to try to get to the surface. I panicked and opened my mouth, attempting to call out for someone, my lungs burning as they filled with water and chlorine. I was lucky that Mikasa had called over a lifeguard to pull me out. I was like a rock when it came to water.

         Now, I could at least hold my breath for a while, that is, when I was actually prepared for going underwater. This slip had caught me off guard and I had used the last of my breath hollering in surprise as I fell into the water, sinking almost immediately after I hit the surface.

         Panicked, I gasped for air, gulping in water instead. My arms flailed around, trying to pull me up, but I kept sinking. My lungs were burning and my vision was fading, when a pair of arms wrapped around me and I was rising instead of sinking.

         I coughed, getting the remaining water out of my throat before I could breath in more air. Levi held onto me, unable to push me onto the ledge without my help. Suddenly I was a child again, clinging and crying to the lifeguard as he pulled me out of the pool and brought me back to my sister. Except my sister was not here and my saviour was not a lifeguard, but a mermaid. I looked up at him and saw he had a slight smirk dancing on his lips.

         “Do all humans sink, or is it just you?” he asked.

         I shook my head, heat rising to my cheeks. “Just me. I can’t swim,” I mumbled.

         He laughed.

         Helping me back up on the ledge, Levi crossed his arms on the ledge and rested his head on them. I was now completely soaked, from head to toe. I took my shoes off and kicked them against the wall before I peeled my shirt and jeans off and tossed them with my shoes. Squeezing the excess water out of my boxers, but leaving them on.

         “Human legs,” Levi began, catching me off guard, “are very weird looking.”

         I turned to look at him, seeing that he was just staring at my legs. I suddenly felt self-conscious, so I reached into my bag and grabbed a towel, thanking myself that I had packed it just in case.

         “Well, your tail is just as weird looking,” I shot back to him once I’d crouched by the ledge with my towel wrapped around me.

         I didn’t like leaving him alone, afraid that if I was gone for too long then the scientists would take advantage of my absence to try their hand at examining Levi. Hanji and I weren’t the only ones interested in the merman.

         I felt waterlogged and tired. My throat still felt raw from the water and the coughing, too. Reaching out, I took a strand of Levi’s hair. He didn’t move, just let me do it.

         “That crazy human,” Levi started, “the one who brings you food, she seemed happy that I bit her.”

         I snorted and dropped my hand. “Yeah, Hanji can get a bit carried away. She likes that sort of stuff.” I shrugged.

         Levi’s face scrunched up in disgust.

 

         The next day, with Levi’s permission to cut his hair, I brought a bunch of tools. He looked more than a little freaked out by them, but I assured him they were perfectly fine. He pulled himself up onto the ledge, removing his tail completely from the water.

         “You gonna be okay?” I asked him, and when he looked confused I continued, “with being out of the water for a long time.”

         He shrugged. “I’ll be fine, but if you take too long you might not be. I think that would be fun to watch.”

         I was confused by his statement, but didn’t question it. I needed to start by getting rid of all the tangles in his hair first, so I brought the brush up and gently ran it through his hair. Once I finished, I cut a large portion of his hair off and he stared at it for a while in his hands before I put it away in a bag. I chuckled which made him look at me.

         “What?” he asked.

         I shook my head. “Nothing, you just look a little funny right now.”

         He growled and turned his head away. My mind kept picturing him with an undercut, so that was exactly what I was going to do. The sound of me turning the buzzer on made Levi jump, but other than that he sat still and silent.

         Once I was finished, I had to use a damp cloth to wipe away all the strays that had decided to stick to his skin. I moved around him to see what he looked like from the front, noting that his hair had basically dried by now.

         I knew that I was a little pent up sexually from spending most of my time here, but I didn’t think it was that bad until I looked at him and felt heat rise in my cheeks, among other places.

         “Wow... you look... really good,” I stuttered. I tried to cover up my stutter with a cough and looked away, catching sight of his tail.

         It didn’t look the way it did when he came out of the water. The dark blue had dulled and his tail looked smaller, as if a blanket was covering a pair of legs. I stared at it, my mouth open.

         “What is that?” I asked, quickly pointing to his “tail.” Was it even a tail anymore?

         “This is what happens when my kind is out of the water for too long,” he explained.

         My mind couldn’t quite catch up to what was happening. The longer I looked at it, the more they looked like legs. They were still attached to each other, but I could clearly see the joints. I drew my hand down my face.

         “Care to explain?” I asked, completely dumbfounded by this situation.

         He sighed. “It’s a slow process either way,” he began, “but it’s so we can adapt.”

         I looked from his face back to his newly forming legs.

         “Can you use them?” I ask, reaching out to touch them.

         “No, I don’t know how.” He said. They were a grey-ish blue now and beginning to separate. They also still felt a little scaly. I laughed suddenly, which caused Levi to look at me oddly.

         I shook my head, not wanting to explain. “Well, I’m done cutting, so you can get back in.”

         Swinging his legs around, Levi slipped back into the water. He stayed close, holding onto the ledge, so I figured he was waiting for his tail to form again. Then, as soon as I thought about that, I made my way down the stairs so I could watch the transformation.

         It took about fifteen minutes for his nearly-formed legs to return to the dark blue tail it had been. It was fascinating to watch the process from start to finish, making me regret missing most of the change from tail to legs. Running my fingers through my hair, I headed back up the stairs. I didn’t see Levi when I got back to the top; he must have been swimming around, testing the new weight of his hair.

         Blood rushed to my cheeks when I thought about what Levi looked like now. Not that he hadn’t been good-looking before, but I guess I had only recently started thinking of him as more than just an experiment that I was fascinated with. I rubbed my face, attempting to get rid of the heat.

         I needed to spend some time outside.

         I motioned for Levi’s attention and he came back up, a smile lighting up his face for once.

         “I can swim so freely,” he mused, touching his hair.

I just smiled. “Okay, well,” I paused, “is it okay if I go out?” Stupid. Why did I just ask for permission to leave?

I mentally berated myself as he looked at me, probably as confused as I was.

“I don’t understand why you’re asking me, but I don’t mind if you go,” he replied.

I nodded, got up, and made my way down the steps. I couldn’t ignore the fact that he watched me as I left.

 

         “Hey, Eren!” Armin called out as he climbed into my car. “Long time, no see.”

         I smiled at him. “Yeah, it’s definitely been a while,” I said while laughing.

         We made our way over to a cafe to hang out and catch up with each other. He talked about how he’d been helping out his grandfather a lot lately, since he was getting old and becoming less and less unable to do the things he used to. I made a mental note to go and visit him since I thought of him as my own grandfather.

         I told him all I could remember about Levi, even more than I told Hanji. He seemed incredulous when I told him that Levi was a merman, but I knew Armin wouldn’t say a word, choosing to take me by my word. By the time I had finished talking, I had almost gone through two lattes. Armin sat there, studying my face for a moment, then he laughed.

         “What?” I asked him.

         He shook his head. “Nothing, nothing, it’s just,” he paused, “it sounds like you like him.”

         I froze and stared. Not directly at Armin, it was more like I was staring through him. I mean, yeah, sure I liked him. I enjoyed talking to him, but I couldn’t like him like that. That couldn’t be possible. No, I couldn’t like Levi. He wasn’t even human. Something like that wouldn’t work, right?


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to start off with a huge sorry to all of you. I just suddenly stopped writing, well I didn't actually but I couldn't write more than one sentence at a time it was terrible I don't ever want to go through that again.
> 
> Well here you all are though, I'll try and do chapter five within the week since I know you're all going to want to strangle me for the ending of this chapter.
> 
> Also! Lithi has edited chapter one for you all who wish to get a better feeling for the beginning! It has a lot more words in it now and looks amazing(ty so much my saviour Lithi)

              Someone was knocking on my door, but I didn’t bother to answer.

              “Eren, why haven’t you left your room?”

              More knocking, and the door handle jingled as she tried to open the door.

              Was I in shock? That had to be it, I hadn’t left my room since I had been with Armin yesterday. My stomach growled for food, but I still didn’t leave my bed.

              “Eren, what happened?” Mikasa tried the door again. She had been coming to my room almost every hour to see if it had been unlocked. Like that was going to happen.

              I flipped through my work notes, looking at the sketch that one of the more talented scientists had drawn for me. Flipping the pages through numerous amounts of information, then flipping backwards through the book to the sketch again.

              Ever since I came home, I had been locked in my room. I didn’t know what to do.

              Armin couldn’t have been right, but I also didn’t have anything to compare it to; I’ve never liked anyone before. Well, other than my family and friends, but that was different. This was different.

              I lay in bed for hours, hundreds of thoughts running through my head, trying to get a better understanding of my situation. Is this what it felt like when you liked someone? Could I, without a doubt, say I liked Levi? It hit me then; I could say it. I liked Levi. I wasn’t sure how much I liked him, but I could definitely say that I liked him.

              It was this moment that Mikasa decided to knock at my door again. “Eren, you haven’t eaten at all today. Please come out,” she pleaded. She sounded honestly worried.

              I rolled over and got out of bed. My mouth was dry and my stomach was killing me, so I guessed getting some food wouldn’t be a bad idea.

              She looked so relieved when I opened the door and even hugged me, which is something we don’t do often.

              “I’m fine, Mikasa, was just a little confused about some things—but I figured them out,” I quickly added the last bit before she could ask about it. I didn’t want to talk to her about it, not yet at least.

              Ignoring my protests, Mikasa made dinner for me even though I was perfectly capable of cooking for myself. I sat patiently and quietly at the table while she worked her way around the kitchen. I was glad that she decided to keep quiet for now. I probably wouldn’t have that luxury later, but it was enough. It wasn’t long until plates of spaghetti and meatballs were settled on the table in front of us. I didn’t hesitate to eat the whole plate and get seconds, realizing only then how starving I was. I felt like I was hungry enough to eat a whale.

              After we washed the dishes, we sat back at the table to play a game of cards. It was the kind of thing we used to do when one of us was having a bad day. That’s how Hanji found us when she came home.

              “Has Eren come out of his—oh, Eren! You need to come back to the lab tomorrow. He doesn’t respond to any of us the way he responds to you.”

              I nodded. I had been planning to go to the lab tomorrow, anyway. I was only allowing myself one day to figure out my confusion, which was thankfully all I needed. However, I was starting to feel my exhaustion, despite having slept on and off for most of the day, so I bid Hanji and Mikasa goodnight and went to my room. It was warm tonight, so I took everything but my boxers off before slipping under the covers. Even though I was tired, I just lay there staring at the wall with thoughts of Levi buzzing in my head.

              He would be able to leave soon, as long as the lab allowed it. I really hoped that I would be able to see him off, but my chest clenched at the idea. No, I didn’t want to see him off. I didn’t want him to leave in the first place. I knew that he probably had a family or others like him wondering where he had disappeared to, but I didn’t want him to leave.

              Rolling onto my side, I brought my hand to my chest as if holding it would make the unpleasant feeling go away. I enjoyed talking to him, hearing about his life and telling him about mine. I wanted to be able to swim with him, to be close to him, to touch him for other reasons other than an experiment. As I started thinking about touching him, my mind slipped into the gutter and I did absolutely nothing to stop it.

              Closing my eyes, I let my hands trail down my chest and over my thighs. My mind wandered to how Levi would always look at my legs if I had shorts on, making me wonder if he was attracted to me, too. The thought only spurred me on, and I rolled onto my back and brought my knees up slightly. Rubbing myself through my boxers, my breath hitched.

              I could see Levi under me, laying there and unable to move. Palming myself through my boxers, I thought of how it would feel to be inside him and I almost lost it. I needed more friction, so I pulled my cock out of my boxers, pumping my hand up and down along my length. My mouth fell open as my breaths become faster and more shallow, turning into panting.

              I pictured Levi’s face twisted with pleasure, his face red and his eyes glazed over in lust. I wanted to see him like this in person, wanted to be the reason he looked blissed out. I moaned at the picture I was painting. I turned my head and bit into my knuckle; the walls were thin and I needed to keep quiet.

               _Close._

              I moved my hand faster, catching my thumb the slit of my head. My back arched slightly off the bed, my mind picturing what Levi would look like as he went over the edge. My hand had dropped from my mouth and was now gripping the sheets.

               _So close._

              With Levi’s name on my lips, I came. My body went limp and I just lay still for a moment, basking in the feeling of relief. It had been weeks since I’d relieved myself. My face felt hot when I realized I had just used Levi to get off. I groaned, about to roll on my side and go to sleep, when I remembered I was covered in my own cum.

              Getting up, I peeked out of my door to see if there was anyone in the hall. Once I was sure no one was out there, I dashed across the hall and into the bathroom, taking a quick shower before heading back to bed for the night.

 

              “So, you’re telling me I can go home soon?”

              I nodded, confirming Levi’s question. I didn’t want him to leave, but that wasn’t a choice I could make. I scanned through my notebook, staring at the few questions that remained.

              I still wasn’t completely sure if he could actually go home soon; it wasn’t my decision to make. It would be up to the head of the lab, who also owned the aquarium upstairs.

              “I’m gonna miss you,” I breathed.

              “What was that?” Levi raised his head out of his arms. “Did I just hear that you’re going to miss me?”

              I laughed, covering up the tightening in my chest.

              “Yeah, I won’t have anything to look after anymore. It’ll be lonely,” I joked with him. He cracked a small smile that just reached his eyes.

              I heard him say something, but couldn’t quite catch it, so I asked him to repeat it.

              “I said, It’ll be quite nice to be able to do something other than to float in this tank and count starfish,” he repeated. I had a feeling that wasn’t what he said, but I didn’t ask him again.

              I shrugged. “It gets pretty boring watching you all day, too, since, you know, all you do is swim around.”

              He scowled at me in return.

              I waved it off and started heading down the stairs. “I’ll be back in a little bit. I’m starving and craving McDonalds.”

              After informing Hanji that I was leaving, I headed out to my car and found my way to McDonalds.

              I’d lied to him. I actually quite enjoyed just watching Levi swim around. It was beautiful. I wished I could swim like that. I shivered in my seat, recalling that water and me didn’t get along. I had to be a masochist to strive to be a marine biologist. It hadn’t started off this way. There was a time when I didn’t give a second thought to sea animals. I remembered Hanji would always come home from work and show us pictures and notes of what she’d done that day.

 

              “I’m home, my sweet little children that I love just as much as I love my job!” Hanji had said the words in one rushed sentence and I could barely make out one word from the other.

              I was sitting in front of the T.V., zoning out to some kids show. Mikasa was beside me, but she was working on something. I was snapped out of my zombie like state, when Hanji stepped right in the my line of vision.

              “Hey!” I complained, my voice high pitched in my preadolescence. “I was watching that!”

              Hanji laughed and crouched down, placing her things on the coffee table in between us. “We just got these samples in and—”

              I’d stopped listening to her as I stared at her work. My brain was absorbing her words but I couldn’t actually hear them. My eyes scanned over the pictures of animal samples and documents that, at that age, I couldn’t comprehend.

              They had fascinated me, though, and I had asked Hanji to teach me as much as she could while teaching us our normal school activities.

 

              Pulling the door to Levi’s tank room open, I saw he was close to the glass wall with his back facing towards me. I walked up to the glass and tapped on it lightly, and he flinched a little and turned his head towards me, his signature deathly glare turning into his usual glare.

              I smiled at him. “Did I scare you?” I asked him once I reached the top of the stairs and saw that he was above water.

              “Just a bit,” he grumbled, flicking water towards me. I laughed and kicked my shoes off, placed my bag of food down, and rolled up my pants.

              “Wanna try some of our food today?” I asked Levi as I sat down and put my feet in the water. I’d grabbed a small order of chicken nuggets for him to try if he wanted to.

              He gave me a skeptical look before holding a hand out towards me. I took that as a yes and dug into my bag. I handed him a nugget and grabbed my notebook, flipping it to an empty page with one line written at the top.

              He looked at it for a moment, squeezing it slightly in between his fingertips, which made me chuckle quietly. It reminded me of when Hanji tried to get us to eat vegetables for the first time, though I hoped it wouldn’t end the same way.

              As I was writing down what he was eating, he bit the nugget in half and I noticed his eyes widen for a moment as he carefully chewed the meat that couldn’t possibly be chicken. After swallowing, he looked at the remainder in his hand quizzically.

              “How was it?” I prompted.

              He looked at me, then back to the nugget. “It was… good,” he said slowly, before nodding slightly. “Yes. It was good.”

              I smiled, taking out the small box that contained three more chicken nuggets and set them in front of him before finishing my notes. He ate them much more quickly after that.

              We talked about almost meaningless things, yet I cherished moments like these because I knew they were about to end. My notebook was full—answers to all of Hanji’s questions filling the pages. He would soon be out of my care. My heart felt like it skipped a beat and I was sure that my discomfort was showing on my face.

              I knew that it was once Levi looked at me and asked me if I was all right. I nodded quickly, removing my feet from the water and gathering my things. With my back turned to him, I bit my lip before speaking.

              “I’m going to turn in my notebook and then go home.” I paused, trying to keep my voice from cracking. “Try to be nice to the others. They will probably be taking you back home.”

              I turned quickly and darted down the stairs. Levi called my name and told me to wait. I didn’t stop, not until I was outside of the room and the door was closed. I didn’t care that there were people in the room, I slid down the door and buried my hands into my face.

              “Eren?” It was Hanji calling my name. I needed to tell her I was done. I needed to tell her that I got all the information that she wanted, but I couldn’t, so I just sat there on the floor in the basement of an aquarium, sobbing.

              I could feel Hanji’s hand on my shoulder, but she didn’t say anything. Just let me know she was there for me.

              It took me ten minutes to calm down, my eyes were sore and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were red and puffy. Hanji looked worried when I finally lifted my head to look at her.

              “Sorry. I don’t know what came over me,” I apologized, standing up and handing her my notebook. “I’m done. Everything is recorded in there. I need—I need to go home. I’m tired.”

              She took the book and looked like she was about to say something but I was already heading towards the door. I needed to get out of here before the weight on my chest crushed my heart.

              No one was home when I got there. The house was dark aside from the light from the setting sun outside. I sighed loudly and ran my fingers through my hair. I hadn’t cried like that since my mom died. I was either really stupid, or… I don’t know, but I was exhausted. Throwing my boots off, I went upstairs and dove right onto my bed. Falling asleep almost immediately after hitting the pillow, despite it only being a little bit after seven.

 

               _Suffocating._

_I can’t breath. It’s dark. Where am I? I can’t feel anything. Can I move? It’s cold, it’s so cold._

_Are my eyes open? I can’t tell, it’s so dark. I try to go through the motion of opening them—it works. It’s still dark, but I can see something. It’s dark blue._

_I’m numb._

_Am I dead? No. I don’t think so._

_It’s moving now, the only thing I can see in the dark abyss. It’s coming closer. Is it dangerous?_

_Terror._

_I’m scared, but I don’t know why. I can see it now. I recognize it. It’s Levi._

_Warmth._

_Levi is here for me. That makes everything better. I still can’t breath. He reaches out to me, I move my arm to reach for him._

_Suddenly his face contorts into that of a rabid animal._

_“Why would I stay with a human?” he sneers. “I have a home and a place to go to. What do you have?”_

_Panic._

_I’m in the water, but I can’t swim. Levi isn’t going to help me, not again. He’s swimming away from me. I can’t breathe. My chest tightens. I can’t move, I can’t breath, I can’t._

_Why?_

_Why?_

_Why?_

_I should have known. Why get my hopes up? Why feel anything for something that’s not human?_

_Suffocating._

_It’s so cold._

_I’m numb._

_Kill me..._

              I didn’t realize it was me screaming until Mikasa shook me out of my panicked state. Immediately after sitting up, I curled my legs to my chest and hugged them.

              “Breathe,” I heard Mikasa say as she started rubbing my back. I suddenly remembered that I could breathe and that I wasn’t suffocating anymore, though it didn’t stop me from gasping for air like I couldn’t.

              I hadn’t realized Hanji was standing in the doorway until she spoke up. “What’s wrong? You’ve been acting weird since you left the mermaid’s tank room.”

              I shrugged and brought my head up to look at her. I wasn’t going to tell her that I fell in love with a mermaid. She’d either think I’m crazy (which would be hilarious considering how insane she is), or she would turn it into some experiment.

              “I don’t want to talk about it. Sorry, guys,” I mumbled. Mikasa sighed quietly and stood up, heading towards the door to go back to sleep. After they were gone, I lay back down and curled into the smallest form my tall body would allow.

              It had only been a nightmare. Everything was okay. I was safe in my room; there was no water. There was no Levi to leave me behind to die. My chest tightened and I balled my hand into a fist, digging my nails into my palm to try and distract myself. It worked after a while and I eventually fell into a dreamless, yet restless, sleep.

 

              Classes had been uneventful, especially since I already knew half of the stuff he was teaching us. I was heading out to my car when Armin jogged up behind me, linking his arm with mine and falling into place beside me.

              “How was your day?” he asked, looking up at me. I glanced at him and wondered why he didn’t have someone yet. He was attractive, though the innocent features his face held might attract more of the male population than the female. I was pretty sure he was straight, though I never asked.

              “It was boring. I just wanna go home and die on my bed,” I laughed. “I barely got any sleep because of the nightmare I had last night.”

              We stopped by my car and he leaned onto it, a worried look on his face. “You okay? What was it about?” he asked. He knew most of the story already with Levi, so we decided to go out for a quick, early dinner while I explained the contents of my dream and what had happened that day.

              Once I was finished he leaned back, seemingly processing all the new information in his genius brain. “Well, you’ve had dreams similar to that before. Those can’t be helped, and I don’t really know if you can do anything about Levi, either.” He leaned forward and rested his hands on the table, sighing.

              This was the exact thing that was bothering me, my inability to do anything about what I was doing with my feelings and fears. I wished I had more control over them. We parted ways after talking, since Armin had errands to run, and I made my way home while trying to keep my mind empty of any thoughts.

              “Welcome back, Eren!” Hanji called from the living room as I shut the front door behind me. What was she doing home so early? “Wanna know what happened to the mermaid?”

              My chest clenched at the mention of Levi. “Not particularly,” I forced out, “but you’re going to tell me anyway, aren’t you?” I swallowed, preparing for her to tell me that he was being taken back to the ocean as we spoke.

              “The boss wants to put him on display in a special area in the aquarium!”

              She was completely oblivious to the anger that had almost immediately started boiling in my blood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I follow the tag Fic: bring the sea to me on tumblr.  
> My tumblr is Shingeki-no-fuck--this.tumblr.com for anyone who didn't come from there. I have a page on my tumblr that has the fanart for BTSTM and update notices. You should all totally check it out cuz there are three fanarts there already (and you get to see Levi dressed in a giraffe onesie courtousy of my cosplay) :D


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here you go everyone! Slight delay cuz Lithi was lazy~!!! That's ok though, she has adult things to do as well and it allows her to be lazy in the free time she has.
> 
> I have an announcment as well, I will try to update again for Saturday but if I don't im sorry. Anywho~ I will write for a week, Lithi will edit on whenever she wants until Friday, then I will update on Saturday, if I ended up writing more than one chapter I will update again on Sunday, if I have more I will update again, producing one chapter each day until im out of chapters that I've written for that week.

              The aquarium was the last place I wanted to be in my free time. Hanji had insisted that we all spend our day off here during the weekend, though. I hadn’t let my anger get the best of me when Hanji told me that they hadn’t released Levi, but I also felt terribly guilty because, when she told us about our plans for the day, there was a spark of happiness that I would be able to see Levi again.

              Mentally beating myself over my conflicting feelings, Hanji, Mikasa, Armin, Annie and I had arrived in front of a tank that showcased an abundance of colorful fish. Hanji was going on and on about all the different species, how they lived, and other facts that I already knew and honestly didn’t care to listen to.

              A random thought crossed my mind in the midst of my inner battle; despite living twenty minutes from the aquarium, we had never visited it until today (I guess because Hanji was always busy).

              “Eren?” Everyone was looking at me. It had been Armin who spoke.

              “Uh, sorry, yeah?” I replied, wondering why we weren’t just carrying on with this trip.

              “Hanji wanted to know if you wanted to see Le—the mermaid,” he said, quickly correcting his mistake before anyone could notice it. Once again I was left with conflicting feelings, I felt too guilty to see him, but I also wanted to see how he was so badly.

              It felt like it took me years to come to a decision, but it was a mere minute in real time. I would see him, this would hurt less then if I chose not to.

              Getting into the area where Levi was costed extra than the rest of the aquarium simply because it was the only captured mermaid in existence, as the guy manning the entrance had said with enthusiasm that made me want to punch him.

              There were a lot less people in here than I thought there would be, then again it did cost extra. I felt my heart stop when I saw him, and I blinked rapidly to stop the tears that were building in my eyes. The tank was smaller than the one in the basement, and Levi was quite furiously moving around in the smaller area. I walked up to the glass and put my hand up to the glass, he hadn’t seen me yet.

              Tears had gathered in my eyes, threatening to fall. I tapped on the glass and he stopped swimming in circles, scanning the room full of people until his eyes fell on me. He didn’t move from his spot, and his expression in that moment spoke volumes.

              Betrayal. Anguish. Defeat.

              It had only lasted a moment before he bared his fangs at me like the first day we met and turned his back to me. I couldn’t blink away the tears this time as my knees gave out beneath me and I slid to the floor, one hand on the glass, the other cupped over my mouth.

              “Are you okay!?” Mikasa was the first to notice me go down.

              I didn’t reply. My mouth open under my hand as I silently sobbed. No, I was not okay. I wasn’t okay at all. Infact, I felt like I had died and gone to hell. The pain in my chest was the worst it had ever been. I’d left him alone this whole time. He must’ve hated me, he had to. I felt like I couldn’t breath, my hand dropped from my mouth and to the floor as I stopped myself from further crumpling to the floor.

              “Eren!” Armin had noticed now. Why couldn’t I just disappear? I could feel a couple hands on my back, one must be Mikasa’s, the other Armin’s.

              “I—I’m fine,” I said when I could finally talk. Annie and Hanji had blocked most of the onlookers’ view from me. Why had I been weak and ran from him that day? He was stuck in this small tank to be people’s entertainment now and it was my fault for not being there. It had to be my fault. No, it wasn’t completely my fault. It was Hanji’s, as well as her boss’s fault.

              I used my sleeve to wipe my eyes before looking up and into the tank, Levi was at the other end, far away from me. I breathed in deeply, then stood and looked at Hanji.

              “Bring me to your boss, I want to speak with him.” I bit the inside of my cheek to keep the emotions that were building up inside me out of my voice.

              She looked surprised and confused for a moment, her eyes drifting to Levi then back to me. I recognized realization in her eyes before they turned into something I wished I hadn’t seen. It was the look she got when she started an experiment that she really enjoyed. At the moment though, I didn’t care.

              She grabbed my arm and started pulling me towards one of the staff doors. “You guys just look around, Eren and I have business to do,” she called to everyone as we disappeared through the staff door. “Just try to be polite to him. He is my boss and might be yours in the future,” she said to me.

              I nodded, then she proceeded to drag me through a maze of hallways. I wondered how the workers knew their way around so well. My sense of direction was completely gone by the time we arrived in front of a door that was marked “Office”.

              Hanji knocked on the door and waited. A few moments later, a deep voice called out for us to come in. Pushing the door open, Hanji pulled me inside and shut it behind us. I did a double take when I saw the tall man behind the desk as he rose to greet us. The amount of charisma that was coming from him was enough to bring heat to the tips of my ears. Blue eyes, amazingly neat blond hair, and a fit body. He was handsome.

              “Eren, this is Erwin Smith. My boss and owner of the lab and the aquarium,” Hanji presented.

              Erwin extended a hand toward me. I clenched a hand into a fist and extended the other one, taking Erwin’s hand and shaking it.

              “Hanji, could you leave? I would like to talk to him alone.” Some of my anger slipped into my voice now, causing it to shake slightly. I didn’t want Hanji to interfere.

              Hanji looked at me with doubt for a moment before Erwin spoke up. “It’s all right, Hanji, you can leave. I’ll walk him back once we’re done.”

              She sighed lightly before leaving the room.

              A few minutes of silence after she left the room, my hands slammed down onto Erwin’s desk. “What the fuck is your problem!?” I screamed, my voice higher than usual.

              “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he answered innocently. That just fueled me more.

              “So you’re saying that you have no idea how horrible it is to lock Le—the mermaid up and not release him?!” My voice went higher again, as well as my anger. Erwin’s face didn’t change at all as mine twisted with anger. My hands clenched on the desk.

              Erwin’s lips suddenly turned into a smile as he leaned into his chair. God, he was attractive, but, fuck, I hated him right now. “Eren, I’m a collector of rare things. All of the fish in this aquarium are endangered or rarely ever found. Why would I not want to add another rare and beautiful creature to my collection?”

              My body shook in my rage. How could he be so heartless? No, he wasn’t heartless. He was cruel and greedy. His eyes shone with delight as he talked about Levi, among his other rare things. I couldn’t stand it anymore, so I cut him off with a frustrated growl.

              “I don’t care about your fucking collection,” I yelled. “I want you to release him right now!”

              He chuckled and leaned forward, arms cupped together on his desk. “Tell you what. You can be his personal caretaker. You look after him, you feed him. All that stuff. Deal?”

              I wanted to knock that smug look off his face, but I only ground my teeth together. I would risk Hanji’s job by resorting to violence. It was one thing when it was my things at stake, but I really didn’t want to get Hanji fired.

              “Fine,” I spat. This man wasn’t about to give me what I wanted, so I would have to take it with force, but not yet. I was glad that Hanji had taught me how to better control my anger or I would have swung my fist at him by now. I remembered the first few houses in foster care. I may have been young but that didn’t stop me from picking fights with the other kids, some of them in older grades. Though I would usually end up bloody and bruised while they walked away free of any harm. I didn’t know how to fight then, but I did get better over time.

              Erwin started filling out some papers and typing on his laptop a few times as I stood there glaring daggers at him. Once he was finished, he handed me a piece of  paper with times and dates on it.

              “That will be your schedule and those are the times you will be paid for. You can come in whenever you want, but I will not pay you for them.”

              He stood up after I took the paper and headed toward the door. “I”ll take you back now. I assume you were in the mermaid room?”

              I nodded.

              Mikasa tried to ask me what had happened after I came back, but I refused to tell her. I wasn’t ready to tell her. I could see the hurt in her eyes because she knew I was keeping something big from her, but I just couldn’t bring myself to tell her about it.

              Armin just linked his arm with mine and gave me a reassuring squeeze. It made me feel a bit better. We went through the rest of the aquarium without me breaking down again and I actually started to enjoy myself a little. Adding little facts alongside Hanji to the fish that I knew a lot about. Erwin was right, though, this entire aquarium was filled with rare and endangered species. I wasn’t even sure if half of the species were here legally.

              We went out for dinner after we had gone through the aquarium and I announced that I would be working there starting tomorrow. Hanji was ecstatic at that announcement, Mikasa just reminded me not to fall behind in my studies (even though I was actually really good at school), and Armin smiled painfully at me.

              “Well, since we’re announcing things,” Mikasa began, “I’m going to be moving in with Annie next weekend."

              I wasn't at all surprised. Mikasa had been spending more and more time at Annie's place lately. Though, if they didn't tell you they were together, you wouldn't notice by how they acted in public. I congratulated them and they both nodded (man, they were perfect for each other). The rest of the night was spent eating and listening to Hanji telling terrible fish jokes.

              I was tired and frustrated by the time I fell asleep that night. I had another nightmare, as well. Almost the same as my last one, but Levi told me that I had betrayed him. I woke up screaming again.

 

              I shut the staff door behind me, once again faced with the two doors that led to the aquarium and the lab. Except this time I was going right instead of left. I was greeted with a very annoying face when I walked in.

              "Hey, newbie, welcome to the Charisma King’s collection house. My name’s Jean, be sure to stay out of my way because I don't want to be blamed for your mistakes." His voice was just as annoying. I looked at him and glared before snorting.

              "You look like a fucking horse. Anyway, as long as you stay away from the mermaid we won't have a problem with you getting in my way," I replied and smirked at the douche who had decided to piss me off.

              He was about to retaliate, but another person came in and interrupted him. It was a small girl with long blonde hair and she smiled sweetly when she noticed me in the room. "Oh, you must be the new recruit!" Her voice was just as angelic as her appearance. "I'm Christa, what's your name?"

              Jean made a noise and stood up, heading towards the door.

              "I'm Eren, nice to meet you." I answered. She had almost instantly reduced the anger that Jean had created in me. I was glad to have met someone that I didn't instantly hate in this place.

              Christa showed me where everything in the staff room was and was even kind enough to give me a map that she had created just for new people so they could make their way around the maze of this building.

              "So, what's that Jean guy’s problem?" I asked her after clocking in for my shift.

              She laughed and gave me a shrug. "Just the way he is. He's not that bad once you get to know him,” she commented simply, biting into an apple. She must’ve been on a break.

              I made my way through the halls and eventually found the area above Levi's tank. There was a sheet of paper that posted his feeding times, and a clock not far above that. It was actually time for his lunch.

              My chest tightened at the thought of seeing him again. I kept thinking that he would hate me because I told him he would be able to go home and he was stuck in another tank. The look of betrayal in his eyes was clear in my memory and the anger was even clearer. I didn't know what I was going to do when he came up to get his lunch. It was too late to think anything else since he was coming up right then.

              I panicked, unable to move as his eyes caught sight of me and froze. It took only a second for him to register that it was me, and the pain and anger that flashed across his face before his eyes narrowed was obvious.

              He surged forward, pulling himself up onto the ledge and grabbing my leg. I was knocked out of my frozen state as I pushed my hands out to stop my fall.

              "What happened to me going home!" Levi screamed, the tone of his voice so cold that it stung. He pulled me closer, and I had a moment to realize his strength before I was on my back underneath him, his face inches from mine.

              "You lied to me!" he growled. I could feel his breath on my face. I shook my head; I didn't mean to lie to him. I had no clue that Erwin would be like this.

              "I didn't mean to, Levi, please believe me. I'm sorry. I had no idea. I'm so sorry." Tears stung my eyes again. This had to be the most I've cried in my entire life. Levi just had that effect on me. I reached up and cupped his face in my hands, not exactly sure why I did, but it seemed to calm him down just a little.

              He closed his eyes and let out a sigh, moving so he was sitting on the ledge instead of leaning over me. I sat up and looked at him and he shook his head.

              "I want to believe you, but what happened?" He looked at me questioningly.

              My body slumped in response and I let out a heavy sigh. "I had no input on what happened to you after I turned in my research. Hanji’s boss decided to keep you. I was furious, I confronted him, then out of his own sick amusement is making me your caretaker again. Levi, I'll get you out of here. Even if that means I need to break the law." My voice had switched from sadness to anger by the end of my explanation, and I clenched my hands into fists.

              "I'm not entirely sure what the 'law' is, but I’m guessing that it is a set of rules. Why would you do that for me? I'm just a idiotic mermaid that got caught because of his own foolishness." He chuckled and I looked at him.

              My bright teal eyes met with his swirling gray and I remembered the clenching of my chest whenever I looked at him. I remembered the nights that I used him for pleasure and I remembered how much it had hurt to know he would be out of my grasp.

              "I—" I began, wanting to tell him that I might love him, but I felt like it wouldn't be good to tell him, not yet or maybe not ever. It hurt to think that I would take these feelings to the grave. "I just don't want to see a living being suffer," I finished with a huff and stood up. "You must be hungry, let me grab you lunch."

              I heard a splash as he slipped back into the water as I grabbed a fish for him. He took it and sighed, so I asked what was wrong.

              "This stuff is boring to eat every day now that I know there's other food out there."

              I couldn't help but laugh at that. "I'll bring you some better food tomorrow. I didn't really think you'd talk to me today," I confessed.

              He snorted. "Well, you're the least detestable human I know, remember?" he retorted, taking a bite out of the fish. It was a bit gross from my view, watching him tear into raw fish.

              I sat back down near the ledge, once again noticing how much smaller this tank was to his previous one. He had very little room to swim around. I told him it was better to show himself off to the people looking, so he went and did that. My day wasn't very interesting after that. I did some work, clocked out, then went home to work on some homework. The next few days, Levi was acting a little more odd every day and he wouldn't tell me why.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so uh...expect some sexy times next update! That's all I have in my mind right now, but the chapter will have more :D


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wooo~ we did it in time haha, Well See you guys in a week with how many chapters I can get done~
> 
> I track Fic: bring the sea to me and Fic: BTSTM so if you wanna say or show me anything do it there or message me on my tumblr~! 
> 
> My writing and Lithi's editing compliment each other so well.

              When I said Levi was acting odd, I didn’t mean just a few things here or there. No, he was expressing himself more, staring at me for longer, and wouldn’t come too close to me, claiming I was dirty or some shit I didn’t believe. I was honestly kind of hurt by it after a few days, but he absolutely refused to tell me what was going on. I’d gotten sick of it, so I decided to pay him a visit when my shift was over after I’d had a long chat with Armin about the way he was acting. The damn guy had made a face that told me he might know but refused to tell me.

              The halls were dimly lit as I made my way through them, the labyrinth of turns still confusing to me. The place seemed pretty creepy when it was empty, save for the one or two security guards going around the main area. I shifted my hold on the usual sleepover bag I brought when Levi was still in the lab.

              Finally reaching my destination, I set my bag down and looked around in the water for Levi. He would usually come and see why I was here, but with the way he was acting I knew he wouldn’t even come near me.

              I scratched my head. How would I get him to come up? I could just wait, but that could take forever. I bit my lip. Okay, I would get in the water. That would get his attention, but I would not let go of the ledge. I nodded to myself, as if it helped finalize my decision.

              I hadn’t thought of bringing a swimsuit, so I would just have to get in with my boxers. Stripping down, I sat at the ledge of the water, my feet dangling in. I gripped the edge and breathed deeply. I could do this, as long as I didn’t let go of the edge. I gripped the edge tightly as I slipped into the water. I wouldn’t sink as long as I didn’t let go.

              I didn’t even realize that Levi had moved until his tail wrapped around my legs. His hands gripped my waist.

              “L-Levi?” I stuttered, surprised by the sudden contact.

              “You had to come _now_ , didn’t you?” he breathed, his voice was low, different than how he usually sounded.

              The way he was looking at me made me uncomfortable.

              “Levi, what’s wrong?” I asked, looking away slightly. I saw him lick his lips from the corner of my eye. I was about to turn when Levi leaned in and trailed his tongue up my neck. I couldn’t help but shiver at the contact.

              Trying not to let go of the ledge, I squirmed. He wasn’t saying anything, but I could hear his breathing, heavy and shallow. He started moving his hands up, lightly touching my chest as he passed over it. I wasn’t sure what to think, I didn’t want to think that I liked this. Armin’s face passed through my mind; the thing he didn’t want to tell me.

              That image slipped fast as Levi passed over a sensitive area on my chest, it was replaced by my imagination of him when I was alone. The feeling of him touching me the way he was now didn’t feel bad—I actually really liked it. I felt his teeth graze over my collarbone before he trailed kisses up my neck, leaving light red spots where he kissed. I opened my mouth to say something, but all that came out was a soft moan. My hand clamped over my mouth and I could feel the heat gathering on my face. Levi stopped and looked at me and, to be honest, I wished he hadn’t. The usual coolness in his eyes had been replaced by a fierce lust that sent a rush of heat to my abdomen. Without realizing it, I moved my hand from my mouth and ran it over his hair. He leaned into my touch for a moment before leaning towards me and pressing his lips to mine.

              I did not think I would lose my first kiss like this, although I didn’t really mind it. I was mildly irritated thinking that I was twenty-one and I was only just losing my first kiss. The thought escaped my mind when Levi’s tongue ran across my lips demanding entrance. I opened my mouth as Levi turned his head slightly and deepened the kiss while his tongue explored my mouth. I mimicked his movements and he grunted happily in reply. His hands had made their way up and were now tangled in my hair, the only thing that stopped us from sinking was my hand holding onto the ledge.

              My cock was straining against my wet boxers when Levi finally pulled away from our kiss and I gasped for air. Levi must have felt it against him because a devilish smirk crossed his lips. He leaned in and trailed kisses and nibbles down my jawline and neck. I felt one of his hands trailing down my chest, as well. My mind cleared up slightly at that.

              “Levi,” I panted. “What are you doing?”

              He silenced me quickly by sucking on my collarbone. That one would leave a hickey, I mused. I could feel something against me now. Levi’s breathing had gotten quicker, as well. The fleeting thought of whether mermaids even had anything like that was tossed out of the window when Levi had managed to get my cock out of my boxers. I sucked in a breath. Was this really happening?

              Yes.

              Yes, it was.

              His hand wrapped around me and what I could only guess was himself as he moaned into the crook of my neck and _Jesus Christ that noise_ made me grab Levi’s chin and pull his lips to mine, his pace of stroking us faltering slightly before returning to normal. Our eyes locked for a moment and I was almost certain my eyes showed how turned on I was. I needed more friction, so I reached down and matched Levi’s hand with my own.

              This only made Levi cling to my shoulder with his free hand as he panted and mewled. Fuck, I didn’t know his voice could go that high. It was fantastic. I nuzzled my way to the side of his head, dragging my tongue along the shell of his ear, reveling in the shivers that wracked Levi’s body.

              Letting out a low and breathy moan, I almost lost my grip on the ledge, but I caught myself in time. I felt my abdomen start to knot, my hand started moving faster with Levi following suit.

              "Levi, ah, I'm—I’m close," I moaned against his ear. His response was a high pitched "nhnn" as he placed his mouth against my collarbone.

              A couple hard strokes later we were both crying out and clinging to each other as we came. A small thought wondered and hoped that the filtration system would get rid of the semen. We said nothing for a few minutes, just breathing heavily and holding onto each other, while Levi's tail had unwrapped from around my legs.

              "Leave."

              What? Had Levi just told me to leave? After what had just happened?

              He looked up at me and the fierce lust I'd seen previously was gone and had been replaced with his usual glare, though his eyes were more dilated.

              "Why would I? Levi, what just happened?" I implored. He just shook his head. He let go of me and pushed himself back.

              "Something that shouldn't have. If you really want to know, I'll tell you tomorrow. Just, please. Go home."

              That stung a little. I hoped I hadn't done anything wrong. I hesitated a moment, trying to find something to say to him but he just disappeared from the surface and left me alone. I didn't realize how much pain my hand was in until I tried to move it from its grip on the ledge.

              "Fucking ow," I groaned and pulled myself out of the water. My boxers were soaked so I opted for taking them off and going home commando.

 

              I was groggy when I woke up the next day, my phone’s alarm beeping at me annoyingly. I wanted to roll over and go back to sleep but the fucking beeping wouldn't stop until I stood up and walked across my room to turn it off. I groaned, pushing myself up and falling out of bed with a thump.

              I could hear the footsteps now, and knew who it was before she even knocked on the door. She didn't bother knocking either. Her worried face replaced with an amused one as she noticed that I had fallen out of bed and that I was a crumple of tangled limbs and couldn't move.

              "Little help?" I asked as she just stood there staring at me.

              "I don't even know how you managed to get yourself this bad by just falling on the floor." She smirked as she made her way over and helped me up without me hurting myself.

              I thanked her before she left to continue getting ready. I was finally able to turn off the obnoxious alarm, and debated crawling back into bed. I hadn't slept well at all last night and I knew before I even looked in the mirror that I had bags under my eyes.

              Though I couldn't crawl back into bed because Mikasa knew I was awake and would be back up here before she left if I didn't get downstairs. I sighed inwardly and started getting dressed. Pulling on a dark gray T-shirt, black jeans, and a dark green hoodie.

              I went to the bathroom quickly brushing my teeth and combing my hair into less of a mess. I heard Hanji hollar a goodbye to us as she headed off to work. I wasn’t sure if she heard me call back.

              "Eren, I swear if you're not awake yet," Mikasa had said before she saw me coming down the stairs.

              "I'm up, I'm up," I laughed as I went to the kitchen to grab a piece of toast.

              "Okay, well, Armin wants to show us a new place he just found today, so meet up with him after your class."

              I had a few hours to kill before I actually needed to be at the aquarium. My train of thought stopped, and red flashed across my face as I remembered what had happened with Levi the night before. I wanted to know what he had to say but I knew I would need to go and see what Armin had to show us.

              "Alright," I replied as she was heading out the door for school. She went to a different school than Armin and me since her major was really different than ours.

              I headed out not even fifteen minutes after Mikasa, after sending a text to Armin to see if he needed a ride to school; he did.

 

              We had two options, take both Mikasa’s car and my car to wherever Armin wanted to go, or to go back to our house and leave Mikasa’s car. We opted to take the one car and were now on our way to the edge of town.

              “Armin, are we almost there?” I asked, keeping my eyes on the road. Armin motioned for me to go left at the next intersection.

              “Yes, we are, just down this road,” he replied as I turned down an empty road.

              Mikasa sat silently in the backseat, probably texting Annie. She had packed almost everything in her room into boxes and had already moved half of it to Annie’s apartment. She would officially move in two days from now. I was pulled out of thought by Armin’s voice.

              “Right here!” he called, pointing a finger to a large building. I signaled and pulled into the small parking lot.

              “What is it?” Mikasa asked as we all got out of the car, Armin squealed in excitement as he bounced up and down.

              “It’s an observatory! Plus a space museum!” Armin said happily as he started marching towards the large building, that I could now see had a large circular piece attached to it.

              Armin loved anything that held great mystery, which was mostly the ocean and space. This had to be the most interesting place Armin had ever dragged Mikasa and I to. Although, neither of us would ever tell him that we found large stacks of old books and quiet libraries boring. I chuckled lightly and started after Armin and Mikasa followed, slipping her phone into her jacket pocket.

              This was apparently opening day for the museum part of the building, so there were a fair amount of people gathered around the lobby when we got in. Some people I recognized from the campus, a lot of older people, and a few children (though they didn’t look happy to be in a museum).

              “Did you guys know that the first shuttle—” I blocked Armin out, as much as I loved him, space didn’t interest me all that much. Mikasa seemed to be listening to him, but paying more attention to the pictures of space that were lining the walls around us. I wouldn’t be surprised if she ended up painting space for the next week.

              We were guided around in groups and shown different historical things and told about historical people. Like that Armstrong guy that was the first on the moon. Through Armin’s connections of knowing the guy who runs this place we got to go into the observatory. My eyes widened at the sight when we walked in. A large, round room with a huge telescope and many pieces of machine and drawings that I didn’t understand. This was Armin’s world, not mine, that was for sure.

              There were pictures of different star constellations all over the place. They were gorgeous, it made me wish I’d taken an interest in space like Armin had, yet at the same time I enjoyed the wonder that it left in my mind of not knowing. It reminded me of the first time Hanji had started teaching me marine biology. I hadn’t felt it this bad in a while, and it made me smile.

              I could hear Armin talking to the one guy in the room about maybe doing an internship here to help him. The guy seemed pretty happy to have him.

              I checked my watch; I had to be at work in forty minutes. “Guys, I gotta be at work in less than an hour. We gotta go,” I announced, I saw Armin’s shoulders slump and apologized to him.

              I dropped Armin and Mikasa off at home then headed out for work, remembering along the way that Levi owed me an explanation.

              I grew increasingly irritated at the slow traffic on my way there and I was almost late by the time I did get there because of that traffic.

              Clocking in, ignoring Jean, and greeting Christa, I made my way to Levi.

              Crouching down at the ledge, I peered into the water. It didn’t take him long to notice me there and he came up, though his face looked even more unhappy than usual.

              “Alright, wanna tell me what, uh, yesterday was?” I asked, a light blush dusting my cheeks at the thought.

              He sighed, “My kind go through a cycle—though, we are not at all bound by it—when we get more sexually active, and I just couldn’t control myself when you made the dumb decision of coming into the water with me.” He bit his lip a few times as he spoke. “Just pretend it didn’t happen,” he said quickly.

              I didn’t want to pretend it didn’t happen. I honestly wanted it to happen again. I wanted it to continue happening, and for me to be able to do more to him. I wanted to free him, but keep him caged at the same time. It was a terrible conflict, and the guilt killed me if I thought too much about it. Levi was looking at me now, expecting an answer that I didn’t want to give.

              I nodded. “Okay, it never happened.” My voice cracked slightly, but not enough for Levi to notice thankfully. I reached out and took a strand of his hair in between my fingers and he flinched for a second before pulling back. Was that red I saw on the tips of his ears?

              “Levi, do you—”

              “Don’t touch me like that; it makes me remember.” He looked away, glaring at the clock like he was unhappy with the time, as if he could even read it. I stood up and grabbed him a fish. He took it, thanking me, and he looked like he wanted to say something else, but was fighting with himself to say it.

              “Eren, could you help me with something?” Christa came bouncing down the hall, interrupting my focus on Levi. He disappeared under the surface and Christa frowned. “He never comes above for anyone but you it seems.”

              “Well, I was the one who studied him. He kind of trusts me,” I said, shrugging. “So what did you need help with?” I asked.

              “Well, there are these boxes I can’t seem to reach in the storage room,” she started as we headed down the hall.

              I made a decision, right then, that I would get Levi out tonight. I would do everything in my power to help him get home. I didn’t care how much it hurt or made my chest feel heavy. I couldn’t stand to see him like this any more. It would probably hurt more to keep him here than to let him go. Why did love have to hurt so much?


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, so, Lithi fell asleep before she could edit more than a page of this. So this is unedited for the most part, I'll fix it once she wakes up, but i really want you guys to be able to see it since you've patiently waited a week.
> 
> There's going to be quite a bit of fluff this weekend, before shit starts to steadily go down hill. HURRAY
> 
> Also, the smut was not planned at all, Lithi was like DO IT and I was like OK hah.

              “Mikasa, I need your help,” I announced, sitting down on the couch beside her. She peered at me curiously, setting her phone down. She didn’t say anything, so I took that as a cue to go on; that was how it always was between us anyway.

              “Well, the things I haven’t been talking to you about have to do with the mermaid,” I began, watching her carefully for any signs that this would be a bad idea; I saw none. “I actually, really, uh, I really like him.” I looked down and fiddled with the hem of my sweater. This was the first time I’d said it out loud and it was more embarrassing than I thought it would be and I could feel my ears burning.

              She was silent for a moment, but I couldn’t see her expression. “I’m not going to question that because I honestly don’t want to think too hard about it. That doesn’t explain what you want help with though,” she stated.

              I lifted my head and looked at her. “I want to take him from that aquarium. I want to save him and I want to do it tonight,” I said, clenching my fists together as the anger I had been holding against Erwin resurfaced.

              “You’re fully aware that what you want is illegal, right? You could go to jail,” she replied, standing up so she could pace. She usually paced back and forth when she was considering something that she really didn’t want to do.

              “I know I could go to jail, but I can’t see him like that anymore. He can talk, you know. I haven’t even told Hanji that, but he can.”

              She stopped for a moment to glance at me then continued walking around in circles.

              I was about ready to go on my own when Mikasa finally stopped pacing around the living room. Hanji would be home soon and I wanted to leave before she got home but arrive at the aquarium after she was gone. She would have already left or was just leaving now.

              “Mikasa, I need to know if you’re going to help me with this or not,” I pleaded. I would do this on my own if I had to, but I really wanted her help. Her arms, that had been crossed, fell to her sides as she sighed and grabbed her jacket.

              “Let’s go then,” she said, a hint of a smile on her face. I couldn’t hide the joy that her answer made me feel.

 

              It was quarter to ten when we finally arrived in the vacant parking lot of the aquarium, parking right beside the employee door at the back. Mikasa was right on my heels as we slipped through the two doors and into the staff room. The main lights were off, so I didn’t have to worry about anyone catching us. I sighed quietly in relief.

              Trying to keep the memory of Levi and I out of my head as I walked down the halls was very difficult. We arrived at our destination after a few minutes, since I’d made a wrong turn earlier and ended up in the shark area.

              Levi came to the surface only seconds after we’d gotten there, about to say something until he noticed Mikasa behind me, staring intently at him.

              “It’s okay, Levi. This is my sister,” I assured him. They both stared at each other, two blank expressions. It was kind of freaky looking.

              Suddenly turning to me, Levi asked, “What are you doing here?”

              I smiled faintly. “I’m here to get you out.” His eyes widened slightly, a look of conflict and happiness in the grey orbs.

              “Pull yourself out. I’m gonna dry you off so you change quicker. You’re a lot lighter without your tail.”

              He did as I asked and straightened his tail in front of himself. Mikasa reached into the bag we’d brought and handed me the towel. I started wiping his tail down as he watched me.

              “Now, I can’t take you back to the ocean tonight. It would take a while to get to where Hanji got you.” I felt him stiffen, but ignored it as I moved up to his hair, starting to dry that off. I could see the color fading from his tail already.

              “That’s kinda cool,” Mikasa commented as I finished drying Levi. I laughed a little while Levi just glared at her.

              “Now we wait,” I said, sitting down and handing the towel back to Mikasa. We sat in awkward silence as we waited for Levi to fully transition and when he did Mikasa handed me my house coat, making a point to not look at him.

              “Put this on; you’ll freeze if we go outside the way you are,” I told him as he moved to put his arms through. I tried—and failed—to not look at his legs or anywhere else, really, as he was fully human now. His skin felt smooth and I couldn’t see any hair anywhere. Shaking myself out of my fantasies, I lifted him up bridal style and his arms wrapped around my neck.

              “It feels so weird… to be dry,” he said absently, shifting his grip on my neck and moving his toes a little. I smiled, making my way back outside. This had been easier than I thought it would be, though I might have been speaking too soon.

              “Where are you going with my mermaid?” I knew that deep infuriating voice anywhere, the tall blonde came out from behind the door, looking at me and Mikasa expectantly. I felt Levi stiffen in my grip.

              “I’m taking him, because he doesn’t deserve this,” I growled, my shoulders were beginning to shake as the rage began to build. Erwin chuckled, walking towards us.

              “You do know, that’s considered stealing right? I could call the police on you,” he said, I took a step backwards holding Levi tighter.

              “But you wouldn’t do that, not with all your precious fish that are mostly illegal. It would draw too much attention.” I retorted, Erwin laughed and nodded.

              “You are right indeed,” he took turned towards the door, “have fun while you can Eren, I’ll come for him eventually.” Just like that he disappeared into the back door, and just like that I’d been able to take Levi.

              Mikasa drove us home, the car silent, save for our breathing. Levi leaned up against me in the back seat, it was nearing eleven by the time we pulled into our driveway.

              Hanji peeked her head out of the kitchen when we came in, the piece of cheese she had hanging out of her mouth dropping when she caught site of Levi.

              “Eren, what have you done?” She asked, her voice taking on a slightly serious tone for once. Though you could obviously tell she was calculating things in her head.

              “I saved Levi,” I said simply. He glared at her, his obvious dislike showing on his face. I didn’t blame him, this was the woman who had taken his life and thrown it upside down.

              “Levi?” She asked, “you named him?” She turned her head to the side.

              “No, I have my own name you shitty four-eyed human,” Levi snapped, not wavering from his glare as Hanji jumped in surprise. Her mouth hung open as she stared at Levi, fascination and wonder clearly planted in her eyes. Mikasa flicked her hand under Hanji’s chin, closing her mouth. Which seemed to snap her out of her mind.

              “You can talk?! you can—Eren did you teach him?” She looked at me now, I shook my head. She looked back at Levi, he groaned.

              “Ok, Hanji I’m bringing him upstairs. Try to get some sleep. I’m not going to be going to school for a while either,” I added the last part as I was going up the stairs. I could feel Mikasa’s aura from the other room telling me I needed to go to school. I was at the top of my class and we were almost done the year anyway, it didn’t matter if I went or not.

              Strategically opening my door while juggling Levi in my arms, I slipped into my room and kicked the door shut. I set Levi on my bed, he felt the soft fabric of my comforter.

              “Is this where you sleep?” He asked.

              “Yea.”

              “It’s soft.”

              I laughed a little, reaching into my drawer of underwear for a pair that would at least suit Levi. I couldn’t leave him in my house coat, but he also couldn’t be naked, I think that would drive me insane. I finally found one at the bottom of my drawer, I don’t even think I’d ever worn it.

              “I’m gonna put these on you, you can’t be naked but it’s really not comfortable to sleep in that,” I gestured to the house coat. He looked at it, before shrugging and slipping it off his shoulders.

              I bit my bottom lip, his chest was so well toned, years of swimming had to be the reason. I put his feet through the holes in the boxers, sliding it up his legs. I could feel nothing but smoothness as part of my hands ran over his legs, it did nothing to stifle the image I had created in my head. I felt my pants tighten a bit, fuck, stop thinking about his body. Cursing myself silently, I hadn’t noticed Levi had gotten tense.

              I looked up at his face, he was looking away, as if my walls were the most interesting thing he’d seen. He was biting his lip, and the hint of a blush was dusted over his face. Were his legs sensitive? I wanted to test that theory, oh I wanted to. I pulled the boxers over Levi’s ass, then gently—as if it were an accident, ran the tips of my fingers down his inner thigh. I got a choked and suppressed moan, it was so quiet I almost didn’t hear it. My pants were beginning to feel painfully tight, Levi was beginning to turn his head towards me. Probably to make a snide remark about touching him, I didn’t wait for him.

              Rising up, I placed a knee on the bed and claimed his mouth with my own, placing a hand on the back his head, he gasped in surprise. I used that opportunity to invade his mouth with my tongue, running it over the roof of his mouth and along his tongue. He moaned into the kiss, as I trailed my other hand down his thigh. Pulling back I looked down to see that he was now pitching a tent in the newly placed boxers, so they did work like humans. How convenient. I glanced at his face on my way down, his mouth was slightly open and his eyes were glued on me. I could see the desire. I licked my lips.

              I placed my mouth against his cock through his boxers, I was rewarded with a sharp intake of breath. I moved my lips, he squirmed. I licked through the fabric, he moaned. I'd never done something like this before, but enough porn and some research can get you pretty far. I cast my eyes up as I rubbed my hand on him, and he looked fucking fantastic, eyes screwed shut, brows knitted together, mouth hanging open.

              I shuddered at the thought of pinning him down and taking him right now, but I had no condoms or lube. So I didn't dare act upon my desire.

              I kept rubbing him as I moved towards his ear, nibbling on the lobe, a beautiful high pitched sound came from Levi's mouth, I groaned.

              "Levi," I whispered into his ear, "you're so beautiful."

              Levi was shaking all over, his pants coming quick and shallow, I'd barely touched him and he looked like he was almost over the edge.

              I kissed him deeply, my hand stopping its movement for a moment, Levi whined at the sudden stop. Getting back on my knees, I took his dick out of the confines of the fabric. I stared for a moment at the fully erect masterpiece in front of me, and wondered how I was going to fit it in my mouth.

              Levi whined, I looked up at him. He had some drool running down his chin, his face a mask of pure ecstasy. Still looking at him, I moved down and trailed my tongue along the underside of his cock. A rather loud cry erupt from Levi's mouth, and I remembered how thin the walls were.

               _Fuck._

              "Put your hand over your mouth," I ordered. He didn't even hesitate to listen to me. Breathing through his nose now his pants were more audible. I turned my attention back to his cock, rubbing my thumb over the tip. I swirled my tongue around the head before taking it into my mouth.

              "E-Erennnhhaa," Levi moaned, the sound muffled by his mouth. It was music to my ears. I started pumping the base of his dick, he fell backwards on the bed, his back arching up. I took some more of him into my mouth,alternating between sucking gently and sucking hard.

              Levi was reduced to a writhing mess within a few seconds, I could tell he was close, his voice got progressively higher the closer he got. I decided I wanted to try taking him completely, I removed my hand and lowered my mouth, my eyes started to water and my gag reflex wanted to go off but I willed it not to.

              It only lasted seconds of me deep throating him until Levi's hands flung down and gripped the blanket as he came, it tasted oddly sweet as it trickled down my throat. Heavy breathing was all you could hear in the room for a bit, I'd been palming myself through my pants, but now I desperately wanted to finish. Pulling my cock out I started pumping quickly, feeling overheated in my clothes as I neared my limit and came on the side of my bed. I sat there panting for a minute with my head against Levi's thigh.

              When I finally looked up, Levi was staring at me, a face of someone who couldn't tell if they were happy or angry. His face was still red though, and my body temperature felt like it was over the top. I stripped my sweater and jeans off, feeling relief as the heat escaped.

              "I'm sorry, Levi I couldn't control myself.." I trailed off as I looked at him. Levi gave a shuddered sigh.

              "It's..." He paused, "it's okay, it was, good." He looked at the floor. I licked my lips, I wanted to kiss him again. Just a touch, I didn't care I just wanted to connect to him again. I moved towards him and kissed him gently and quickly before pulling back and fixing his boxers. I maneuvered around him removing the soiled blanket. I threw it on the floor and grabbed my other blanket from my closet.

              "Is it okay if I sleep beside you?" I asked, I was fully prepared to let him have all of my king sized bed.

              "Yea, its fine," he answered.

              I put the blanket at the end of the bed and crawled in beside him, he pulled himself up to the pillows and mimicked me, having never seen how humans sleep before. I pulled the blanket over us and wrapped my arm around his torso. Pulling levi into me, he didn't seem to mind. I was the big spoon and he was the little spoon, and fit perfectly. Levi moved his legs a little, as if making sure they were still there.

              "This is actually kind of comfortable," he commented, burying his face in the pillow. I breathed in his scent, he smelled like the ocean, which made me smile to myself. I liked the smell of the ocean.

              "Yea, this is how we sleep," I replied, yawning at the end of my reply. I wished it could stay like this forever, that Levi didn't have a home to return to, that he could just stay with me, so that I could love him forever. I was dozing off now, I felt like I was falling asleep on the beach because of the smell, it was wonderful.

              "I love you, Levi," I murmured against his hair right before I slipped into a blissful sleep. I don't know what he replied with.

 

            _I'm in the water again, oh god no, I can't breath._

_Help me._

_A pair of hands wrapped around my face, and Levi appeared in front of me. He brought his lips to mine in a passionate kiss, when he leaned back I could breath fine, and the darkness of the water disappeared into a beautiful reef, filed with other faceless mermaids and colorful fish._

_Warmth spread through me as Levi showed me around, giving me a few things as keepsakes for when we left, and I knew we would both be leaving because he told me we would. I asked him how I was breathing, he just shook his head and smiled at me._

_I felt so happy, just being with him as he showed me around the reef that was his home in my mind. He looked happy to, though I knew in reality he'd never smile like that. A bird started tweeting, but, we were underwater, how was a bird tweeting._

 

              I opened my eyes, the bird tweeting annoyingly outside my window. I felt a body entangled with mine, oh yea, Levi. We stole him from. The aquarium last night. I wondered what time it was, but I didn't want to move. If I moved I might wake Levi, so I just opted for watching him sleep, occasionally slipping in and out of consciousness.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will upload the next chapter tomorrow :D


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hellenaa: OK, sorry for the wait guys! It's been an eventful week for us, I'll just go back to updating whenever the chapter is done, it seems to be easier. Well, enjoy the fluff and smut that's coming in the next few chapters! Don't forget to comment and go check out Lithi's work, she's slow to update but her writing is well worth it.
> 
> LiquidLithium: Hey, guys. Lithi here. I just want to take a second to apologize for how fucking late this chapter is. In all honesty, you should have had this chapter a week ago, and I feel really bad for that. I had a really bad couple of weeks lately and Hellenaa has been really patient with me about that. So, first thing, if you’re upset at all about this being late, be upset with me. Not Hellenaa. She was really patient and kind with me while I went through the shit hole and I thank her a million times over for that. Second thing, you’re all fucking awesome. You guys make both of us smile when you comment and subscribe and all that fun shit. Seriously. Keep being awesome. Also, I'm a potty mouth. Sorry. XD

              I looked at Levi for the millionth time these past few days, as if he would vanish before my eyes and be gone forever. The day after we had taken him from the aquarium, I was planning on taking him back to the ocean, but he had said that he wanted to learn more of the human world. Though, as interested as he made himself seem, I saw no hint of interest on his face.

              So, here I was, a couple days later, about to take Levi downstairs to show him the television. He had started to move his legs around a lot more lately, though he was far from being able to walk. He would always look back and forth between my legs and his legs, as if looking at mine would unlock the secret to walking—or he was jealous, I’m not sure. I'd managed to get more clothes on him. I couldn't help but note that he looked absolutely adorable in clothes that were too big for him. My pajama pants were slipping down his hips, my hoodie slipping off his bare shoulders, and his hands were being engulfed by the sleeves; I'd tried to get a T-shirt on him once, but that had ended in failure.

              I thanked myself for his lack of knowledge on my world, or else he'd probably refuse to be carried around bridal style. We maneuvered into the living room; Mikasa was gone and Hanji was in the kitchen spending her day off lazing around the house probably. Setting Levi down on the couch, I sat beside him and flipped the TV on. I glanced at him and the sight of his face as he saw the TV flash on was _absolutely priceless_. His mouth was slightly open, his eyes were alight with curiosity, and he'd leaned forward a bit.

              "What is this? How did they get other humans in that tiny thing?!" He turned to me as he asked.

              I laughed, entertained by his reaction. This had to be the best reaction I'd ever seen in my life. "It’s filmed. There aren't actually people in there. You know what a picture is, right?" He nodded. "Well, it’s like the same thing, but it's multiple pictures one after another so that they look like they're moving. Make sense?"

              He thought for a second then nodded slowly. I doubted he could grasp the whole concept. He turned back and watched the screen again, it was some anime show that had recently been dubbed in english about people living inside giant walls to be safe from giant naked people. It was apparently really good, and from what I could see I was enjoying it, the main character was a lot like me.

              Casually leaning back, I moved my arm behind Levi. He was too engrossed in the T.V. to even realise it, or even realise that he was starting to lean on me. Every once in a while, though, I would feel eyes on us, so I’d look towards the entryway to the living room and see nothing. After a few tries, I turned my head really fast, only to see the trail ends of Hanji’s ponytail. The crazy bastard was spying on us, though it didn’t bother me nearly as much when I could feel the weight of Levi against me.

              I really didn’t know how we managed to kill eleven hours watching shows and a couple movies, but here we were, the clock on my cell phone creeping up on midnight. Mikasa had joined us at some point, but even she had gone to bed an hour ago. I looked down at Levi; he was sleeping peacefully against my shoulder.

              “Levi?” I said quietly. He was sound asleep. I chuckled, slipping off the couch and switching the T.V. off. His sleeping face was so peaceful, he looked like a child. He’d probably hit me for a comment like that and I stifled my laughter. I needed to figure out how I would carry him upstairs, I couldn’t do it how I normally would, since I might end up hitting his head.

              Oh, I could carry him the way I saw a mother carrying her sleeping child. It would probably work. I nodded and rubbed my hands together before positioning myself to move Levi’s weight onto my chest, then reaching under him so that he was sitting on my cupped hands. He stirred slightly and I froze.

               _Please don’t wake up, please don’t wake up._

              His breathing went back to normal and I sighed in relief. Lifting him up, I had to shift my hold on him slightly and the whole thing probably looked really awkward, but in the end I did get a proper hold on him and no one was there to make fun of the whole thing. Levi’s head rested in the crook of my neck and his hands lay in his lap. I thanked him for his small frame and headed up the stairs to my room. Placing Levi on the bed, I carefully stripped him off my sweater and pulled the blankets over him. Tossing my own clothes off to the side, I slipped into the bed behind him, pulling him close. This was how we slept, an oddly comfortable tangle of limbs.

 

              "Ready?" I asked, standing front of Levi as he sat on the edge of my bed, he was looking up at me. I smiled at him when he nodded. We were the only ones in the house and I'd asked Levi if he wanted to learn how to walk. Though it would be a bit hard since he lacked the proper muscles to hold himself up.

              I bent down slightly and wrapped my arms around his waist as he reached around my neck. Standing up straight, Levi practically hung from me, his knees bending slightly under the pressure. His brows knitted together as he tried concentrating on straightening his legs; it was pretty cute looking.

              After a couple of futile tries, Levi growled in frustration. "This is… a lot harder than I thought it would he," he admitted angrily. I laughed a bit, only to receive a glare from the shorter man.

              "I didn't expect it to be easy," I said. "It’s okay, we'll get it eventually. It just takes practice." I smiled at him, planting a quick kiss on his forehead. That was the first time I'd done that since his first night here. I saw the tips of his ears go red as he looked down at his feet, probably remembering the same night I was.

              I was starting to wonder if he was okay since he hadn’t moved in a few minutes. As I was about to ask, he looked at me, pulled himself upwards by sheer arm strength and pushed our lips together in a quick but very pleasant kiss. I was left with a big smile on my face as Levi went back to figuring out how legs worked.

              After an hour of practice, Levi was able to stand,though unsteadily, on his own legs. I could see the light in his eyes as he looked at me, proud of himself. I clapped my hands in approval.

              "See? It paid off," I said, stepping back from him so he had nothing to hold on to. He almost lost his balance but managed to stay on his feet. He glanced down at his feet, making a face that made me chuckle.

              "This is the weirdest feeling I have ever felt," he commented, wiggling his toes a little. The image was like a child going to the beach for the first time, wiggling their toes into the soft sand.

              "You're adorable," I blurted out, slapping a hand over my mouth too late. His head shot up and he glared at me, though it didn't last long as his expression faded into a more relaxed one. I gave an apologetic smile.

              I reached towards him and he took my hand. I urged him to try and take a step and he nodded quickly in agreement. Gripping my hand, he lifted his left foot and tentatively moved it a little forward. He glanced at me before lifting his other foot and shuffling it forward.

              "Keep going," I urged him, giving a reassuring squeeze to his hand. I saw him lick his lips as he took a couple more steps, until he reached me and proceeded to put all his weight on me.

              Putting his head on my chest, Levi wrapped his arms around my waist, hugging me. I wrapped my arms around his back, hurrying my face in his hair.

              "Good job, Levi," I said, the sound muffled by his hair. He nodded against my chest. I heard the front door slam downstairs, signaling Hanji's arrival. I ignored it, enjoying the warm hug. I didn't know how I managed not to hear her stomping up the stairs until she slammed my bedroom door open.

              The sound surprised both Levi and me, causing us to push against each other which resulted in both of us falling on our asses.

              "My science senses are tingling!" she hollered as she came into the room. I groaned, pulling myself off the floor and rubbing my ass. I pulled Levi up off the floor and set him on the bed before turning to Hanji who was rather dramatically posing in the doorway.

              "Do you ever knock?" I asked, trying my best to glare at her angrily.

              She snorted, probably at my expression. "Nope! Not when my science senses are tingling! So, what are you doing?" she asked eagerly. Those 'senses' of hers were usually never wrong and sometimes I questioned my sanity for believing her about it.

              "If you must know," I retorted, "I was teaching Levi to walk."

              Her eyes lit up so brightly I swore the sun would go blind looking at them. She clapped her hands together and did a little jump like a child in a candy store with enough money to buy anything they wanted. I groaned again. I knew she’d been paying more attention to us than she should have, but this was the first she’d actually done it in front of us. She’d usually just sneak around and spy on us. I couldn't blame her, though, it was just how she was.

              "Oh… Oh! How did that go?" she asked hurriedly. She went from brighter than the sun to dark and calculating.

              "It's going well. Now get out, Hanji, before I kick you and your science ass out of here," I threatened jokingly although I still wanted her out of my room. Shutting the door, I turned around to see Levi had crossed his legs, mimicking the way I would often sit at the ledge of the tank.

              "You hungry?" I asked. We hadn't eaten today and my stomach was beginning to make noises in protest.

              "Yes, I am," Levi replied, fiddling with the hem of the pajama pants.

              "Okay, well, I wanna take you out, but you'll need to put on clothes that are deemed acceptable for going out in public," I said, laughing when he made a face. I turned and reached into my drawer, grabbing one of my band shirts and pulling it over his head. He groaned in protest as he slid his arms through the sleeves. I grabbed the sweater he had on yesterday off the floor and put it on him, silently debating how hard it would be to get him into jeans and a pair of shoes. I tried it anyway.

              "How do humans wear all of this?" Levi asked, confused or upset with all the clothing that was on him. I had to admit he looked really good in clothes.

              "Well, we get used to it. We start wearing clothes pretty much right after we’re born, so we’re conditioned to not mind it." I shrugged, carrying him downstairs and setting him on the couch. "I'm going to call Armin and see if he wants to come. You haven't actually met him yet, but he's really nice." I said, opting for using the house phone rather than waste money on my cell.

              He picked up after two rings.

              "Hey, Armin, want to come get lunch with me and Levi? I'm taking him out and could use a buddy to help, since he still can't walk all that great."

              Armin made a humming noise, telling me that he was thinking. "Alright, I don't have class today, so I'm pretty bored, you going right now?" he asked.

              "Yeah, just as soon as I can get him out to the car," I laughed.

              Armin chuckled at that and we said our goodbyes, and I made my way back to Levi to work on my next mission—getting Levi out to the car.

              "Do you want to try walking to the car, or would you rather I carried you?" I asked.

              He looked at me, confused. "What's a car?" he finally asked.

              I mentally smacked myself. "It’s the thing we used to get here from the aquarium," I explained, begging that he understood what I meant.

              He nodded, slowly and ungracefully pulling himself off the couch to stand. He looked a bit proud of himself afterwards. "I'll walk, but I'm gonna need some help," he decided, reaching an arm for me. I took it and helped him to the door, each step he took seemed to get a bit longer and better.

              We eventually made it to the car with a few stumbles here and there, I sat him in the back and made sure he had his seatbelt on. He complained about it being uncomfortable but I made sure he kept it on trying to explain that it was his safety. We picked Armin up and were on our way to get food.

              “I’ve heard a lot about you,” Armin started, turning around in the front seat to look at Levi. I had to keep my eyes on the road, so I couldn’t see Levi, but from the way Armin made a face before replying I could only assume he’d done something like crossed his arms or glared at him, or both. He could have done both.

              “Levi, be nice,” I urged, shooting him a quick glance in the rearview mirror.

              He sighed. “Hi, I’ve heard about you, too,” he replied. Armin’s smile seemed almost forced, turning back into his seat.

              We drove in silence for the rest of the way, which was not even five minutes. I pulled into the parking lot of a local small restaurant that Mikasa and I would often eat at when Hanji hadn’t been able to make it home. The daughter of the owner’s was Hanji’s age and would often look after us, even though we assured her that we could look after ourselves. She was really nice and it was fun to be around her.

              Taking the keys out of the ignition, I stepped out of the car and opened the back door. Levi slid his legs out and stood up, more easily than he had from the couch (though that may be because the car was higher up). I wrapped my arm around his waist and made him do the same so it only looked like we were just walking side by side instead of making it obvious that he couldn’t walk well.

              Armin fell into step beside Levi, just in case he needed to grab him. I smiled at him behind Levi to show my thanks. Making our way into the restaurant we were greeted with familiar voices that we hadn’t heard in what felt like forever.

              “Oh, you finally decided to come back for a visit!”

              I smiled at them and made our way to a table, we were quickly waited on by the lovely lady who used to look after me.

              “What shall it be to drink today?” she asked, handing out menus to each of us. Levi looked at the foreign object not sure what to do with it. I held in my laughter.

              “We will have,” I paused, glancing at Levi, wondering what I should get him. Water? That could end badly. He’d been drinking a lot of milk while at the house, so I decided to get him a chocolate milk. I felt like I was ordering for a child. “Chocolate milk, sprite, and, uh, Armin?” I turned to Armin.

              “I’d like an iced tea,” he answered, smiling at Petra, who smiled back just as brightly. She went off with a bounce to her step to get our drinks.

              “Okay, so what in the barnacles do I do with this thing that she has handed me,” Levi grumbled, flipping it around and staring at it. I couldn’t hold in my laughter this time and Armin giggled a little, too.

              “It’s quite pointless to you, but you can look at the pictures and see if there’s anything you like in it since you can’t read.” I opened it up for him and pointed to the pictures. “See? There’s some food that has fish in it, too, if you’d like.”

              He nodded as he scanned the pictures. I didn’t even need to open mine because I already knew what I wanted, so I decided to look at what Levi was looking at. I noticed him lick his lips at a picture that had fish in the dish and I smiled.

              Petra came back with our drinks and asked if we were ready.

              I nodded. “I’ll have the usual. He’ll have the, oh, shit, what was it called?” I grabbed the menu and opened it up to the picture of what Levi was drooling over, and pointed to it.

              She nodded. “The lemon garlic tilapia. Yeah, it’s a handful,” she laughed, turning to Armin. “And you?”

              “I’ll have the angel chicken pasta,” he said, it was his two favorite things, pasta and chicken, in one dish. What a bonus for him. I bit back the laughter that had almost erupted at my own mind.

              She nodded and went off to get our food. I explained to Levi what this place was, and what different words were. He would ask a few questions and I answered them, and before we knew it Petra was coming back with our dishes in hand.

              We ate mostly in silence. Levi seemed to inhale his dish once he figured out how a fork worked. I didn’t tell him to slow down, deciding to just watch the hilarity. Armin enjoyed his dish, and I was brought back to good memories with my food; it made me smile.

              We finished, paid our bill, and went back to the car to head home. On our way to drop Armin off I told him to stop by for my birthday.

              “Of course I will, how could I not?” he scoffed, arm over his chest in mock hurt, which made me laugh.

              When we got home, Levi and I proceeded to waste as much time as possible watching television.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HERE YOU GO EVERYONE!! Finally out! Sorry it took so long. Some sexy times with this super long ass chapter. my chapters are usually 3k words, this one is 4.1k haha. So yea, I guess worth the wait? Also some background on Eren and Mikasa, so woo~

_“Hey, Eren, we’re going to starve if we don’t go back,” Mikasa warned._

_I ignored her, keeping my eyes straight ahead of me. I heard her sigh, but she followed me regardless. Of course she would, she may not be related to me, but she was still my sister. She also promised Mom that she would look after me._

_“Eren, where are we going to go?” It had been twenty minutes since she last spoke and I guess my silence had finally gotten to her. I stopped and turned to face her. She adjusted the backpack on her back as she stared back at me._

_“I don’t know. I just don’t want to go back there, I hate it,” I said, clenching my fists together. They were terrible people, smiling to Mikasa, looking down on me. Their real son would beat me up on a regular basis, and I’d get in shit when he sported a bruise anywhere (regardless if it were my fault or not)._

_It was hell. I trembled as the rage started to build at the thought. I felt Mikasa’s hand on my shoulder, cooling the inferno that had started into a small flame._

_“Then what are we going to do?” she huffed, glaring slightly at the people who would occasionally pass by._

_I shrugged. “Keep walking, find places to sleep, steal if we have to,” I said, trying to find someone to blame, anyone that wasn’t us because it wasn’t our fault. It was the adults’ fault, all of them, it was the so-called parents who cared more for the money than for us, it was the child services worker who left us there, it was Dad’s fault for leaving us. I bit my lip. It was mostly Dad’s fault._

_“Why did Dad have to leave right when mom died!” My voice rose, tears stung my eyes. How could he? He just left us to fend for ourselves. Why did he do that?_

_I brought my sleeve up to wipe my eyes, my shoulders slumping as I sucumbed into yet another fit of angry and scared tears._

 

I breathed in, the smell of ocean filling my nose; it was relaxing. I could feel the heat of the sun on my feet and I didn’t want to get up yet. I snuggled up to the body beside me, and drifted back to sleep.

 

_“Someone stop them!”_

_We’d taken a pretty large amount of food. Mikasa had kept the man busy while I grabbed what I could carry. She was better at talking than I was, so she always held the job of distracting the employees. We ran, turning down multiple corners, and finally ended up in a park, many blocks away from the screaming clerk. I thanked whatever asshole who was looking down on us from above for the farmer’s market that was in town this morning._

_“What did you get?” Mikasa asked, breathless from the long run. I smiled as I dropped the items from my hand onto the ground. There was a small bag of apples, some peaches, ham wrapped in a red package, and a small jar of jam._

_“Nice. This should last us a couple days,” Mikasa noted, nodding at my stolen goods. My stomach growled which made Mikasa smirk, packing up our things in my backpack and straightening herself._

_“Guess we should go cook that ham,” she suggested, heading off towards the forest at the edge of the town. I followed after her, hoisting my bag onto my back._

_We stopped at our small fire pit, gathering sticks and wood, and arranging them in a way that would make a decent sized fire. Mikasa reached into her bag and grabbed a box of matches and some news paper we picked up off the ground, lighting it and putting it under the wood. Once the fire was started, Mikasa grabbed our only pot and filled it with water that we took from a drinking fountain, then placed the ham inside; it just barely fit._

_She was better at the cooking thing than I was, so I just lay on my back and stared at the top of the trees. We’d been traveling for over a month. It still surprised me to see how prepared Mikasa was. She knew I wouldn’t turn back._

_“Eren, it’s ready,” Mikasa said._

_My eyes snapped open, had I fallen asleep?_

_I sat up and she handed me a piece of ham and a plastic fork, the fork only useful for picking up the ham. Oh, it was the most delicious thing I’d eaten in days, even with the slightly funny tang that cooking it on a fire brought._

_“It’s good Mikasa, thanks,” I smiled widely at her and she gave a slight smile back._

 

“Oi, Eren,”

I groaned. I didn’t want to wake up. I could feel the sun on my thighs now.

“Would you stop snoring and get up already? Holy starfish, your arm is heavy.”

My eyes flung open, and I was greeted with a less than pleased face. I smiled at him, he was still beautiful even when he was angry.

“Don’t smile at me, untangle yourself from me,” he growled.

I laughed, pulling my limbs away from him, the movement stirring a stretch out of me. Levi got up, grumbling about being awake for hours trying to wake me up. I doubted he had been awake that long.

“Wait, Levi,” I said, sitting up as he turned around. I planted a quick kiss on his lips. God, he looked good with bed head. Short hairs sticking up in random places. He sighed and stood up. He’d learned how to dress himself finally, and could walk around without help, though it was absolutely hilarious to watch him since he still hadn’t quite gotten it down yet.

I watched him as he unhappily put some of my clothes on. He still didn’t like wearing them. Once he was done I decided that I should probably get up, one last stretch and I was out of bed and pulling some jeans on.

Sluggishly making my way downstairs, I was met with a very upbeat vibe when I entered the kitchen. Hanji, Mikasa, Annie, Armin, Levi and I were all in one room and it made our fairly large kitchen seem quite tiny.

“What the hell is everyone doing here so early?” I asked, about to make my way over to the cupboards for some cereal, but Hanji stepped in my way. Her smile beaming to the point where I felt like I would become blind if I stared any longer.

“We’re going out for breakfast, we’ve been waiting for the special man to wake up,” she laughed, turning me around and pushing me towards the door.

It dawned on me then that today was my birthday. I turned twenty-one today, that would explain why everyone was over so early and why Hanji had the most ridiculous (mind you, every face she made was ridiculous) look on her face.

“Okay, okay, just let me put my shoes on,” I groaned loudly, turning to get out of Hanji’s hold on me and reaching for my shoes. She clapped her hands and motioned for everyone else to head out to the cars. Hanji wouldn’t let me drive so I had no idea where we were going.

Ten minutes later we were pulling into a park. I was very confused at this point, I thought we were going out for breakfast? So, why would we go to a park? I was still too sleepy to comprehend the word picnic. Well, until I was sitting down on a large blanket with food being passed around.

Multiple smells that belonged to my favourite breakfast pieces were being put on a plate for me, and if I didn’t know any better then I would say I was drooling all over the place. My stomach growled, signaling me that it was ready for food. I looked around at everyone, everything felt nice, it washed away the bitter taste my dreams left in my mouth.

Levi shifted his legs into a more comfortable position. I glanced at him and he was staring at me, as well.

“Legs are still a weird thing to me,” he said, quickly chewing a piece of bacon. “Happy… ‘birthday’—was that the word?” He sighed slightly frustrated.

I laughed, almost choking on the piece of bacon in my mouth. “Yeah, that’s the right word, you got it. Did Hanji tell you before I made it downstairs?” I asked.

He nodded. “She may be very rude, but she is not as bad as I first thought,” he said slowly, as if he was finally admitting something that was a huge secret. I reached over and ran my fingers through his soft hair, not matter how many times he used shampoo, his hair still somehow smelled like the ocean; I loved it.

“I really hope Hanji doesn’t drag me places all day, I really want to be able to relax just a little bit today,” I said, smiling faintly, glancing over at her as she told some big story to Armin, her arms moving around all over the place as Armin, as always, looked eager to listen.

“When do you want to go home?” I looked back at Levi, the question seeming to catch him off guard. It hurt a bit to say the words, but I knew he would want to leave eventually, even with how close we’d been getting lately.

He shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said simply, he looked like he wanted to say more, but I didn’t pry. Asking for more would just result in him giving me a snarky remark. I chuckled at the thought, his face twisting slightly as he replied would be kind of funny.

“This place is a lot more interesting than I originally thought it would be,” he went on. “I like it.”

We talked about seemingly useless things. I learned that Armin would be going on a camping trip with his grandfather, even though I didn’t think that his grandfather would be able to handle something like that. I hadn’t even realized that three hours had passed since we got there until Hanji announced that, sadly, she would need to go to work soon.

She took her car and went straight to work while we all piled in the other car to go back to the house.

Levi tripped getting out of the car and would’ve fell on his face if I hadn’t grabbed the back of his shirt at the last moment. He let out an exasperated sigh as he straightened himself up and I wanted to laugh, but I knew that would just make him angry with me.

It was left up to me on what we were to do next and I decided I wanted to watch a movie. Pirates of the Caribbean to be exact, the one with the mermaids. I really wanted to see how Levi would react to them, but hadn’t gotten around to showing him the movie yet.

Everything was fine up until the first mention of mermaids when I caught Levi giving me a confused glance. Then when they showed them and what they did, Levi jumped up off the couch—almost tripping again, and yelled at the television.

“That is not right at all!” he angrily exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air. This had to be the most expressive I’d seen him in front of others. I could hear Armin holding back a fit of laughter and Mikasa was snickering. I’m sure Annie was snickering, too, but I couldn’t hear it over Levi ranting. Oh, he was so cute when he was upset.

He turned to me. “Is this how humans see us!?” he asked, looking a little heartbroken. I couldn’t help but start laughing then.

“These are all mostly myths, Levi, it’s okay,” I said when I could breathe again. “There are many different views of mermaids by people; this is one of the more scary approaches. Most people don’t even believe that mermaids are real.”

He sat back down with a small huff, and continued to glare at the T.V. When the mermaid girl the pirates caught fell out of the tank and her tail turned to legs, Levi huffed in relief.

“Got something right,” he mumbled. “Though it doesn’t happen that fast—oh, she can’t walk, either.”

I smiled at him, though he didn’t see me.

It was the end of the movie and everyone was starting to head home, we’d eaten cake and sang the worst version of happy birthday in history before Hanji had left for work, so there was nothing left other than to let me rest and do whatever.

It was just Levi and me in the house now, at least, until Hanji came home from work, but who knows when that would be since she started pretty late today. We’d moved up to my room and were now playing a card game. I could tell Levi wanted to say or do something, and it was bothering me the longer our card game—that neither of us were paying attention to—went on.

“You want to say something, don’t you?” I pried, trying not to sound pushy or anything, but it was just killing me inside.

I could see his face go slightly red. Had we not been in my room with the lamp on his face I don’t think I would have noticed the change in color. He put his cards down and looked at me, the most serious look on his face I think I’ve ever seen.

“Hanji explained to me what I could give you for your birthday,” he started. Oh great, Hanji told him something. I could see her mind at work like she was standing in front of me. She probably had something devious planned, and I really didn’t want to take part, but I asked Levi anyway.

“What did she tell you?” I asked, placing my cards onto the bed, as well.

He seemed to look everywhere but my face, until he pulled his gaze back to mine. “She said… that—oh, for shark’s sake, it’ll be easier to just show you.” I was pleasantly surprised when Levi shifted himself forward and placed his lips to mine, crumpling the cards underneath him. I gasped against his lips, and he took the opportunity to invade my mouth with his tongue, biting my lip gently on his way back out.

I stared at him, my eyes slightly wide at the sudden interaction. He saw my expression and smirked, breathing in quickly he seemed to calm himself for what he did next. He slipped the sweater off his shoulder, slowly lifting the T-shirt he had underneath up his stomach. I don’t know if he realized how seductive he looked. I hoped he did because I could feel my pants get a little tighter.

I licked my lips, breathing in deeply, I wasn’t sure what he wanted me to do. I wanted to just push him down and take him. I may not have much experience, but I’ll be damned if I hadn’t watched enough gay porn to understand how this shit worked. He had the shirt just above his nipples now and he hadn’t broken his gaze from me the entire time.

“You can do anything you want to m-me,” he said, stuttering for the first time I’d seen. He looked nervous, but not scared. I seized the opportunity. Pushing the cards off the bed, I grabbed the shirt and tore it off the rest of the way, tossing it the side as I pushed him down to the bed.

“Be careful what you give me permission to do, Levi,” I breathed, seizing his mouth with my own, my fingertips ghosting over his chest as I moved to straddle him. Licking his lips, I explored his mouth with my tongue, running it along his and the roof of his mouth.

My hands explored his body, running down his arms then up his chest, his back arched slightly into my touch. I smiled, the thoughts of being unsure of what to do thrown out the window and replaced with thoughts of the things that I could do to him. Oh, the things I could do to him.

I could feel the animalistic hunger that took over me as I leaned down and sucked on Levi’s collarbone. His breath hitched as he let out a small quiet moan, I heard his hand as it smacked against his mouth. I leaned back and looked down at him, licking my lips lightly.

“Levi,” I purred, reaching up and moving his hand away. “I want to hear you. I want to hear that beautiful and fucking sexy voice.”

He shivered, reaching his arms up around my neck and through my hair, pulling me down into a heated kiss.

I groaned, pants feeling way too tight. Leaning back, I undid my jeans, moving off Levi for a moment to discard my pants before sliding back over him. His eyes traveled down to the bulge in my boxers and widened a little.

“That’s going to go…” he trailed off and looked back to my face.

I couldn’t help but chuckle a little when I realized he was just as nervous as I had been. “Yeah, that’s going where you think it’s going,” I assured, rubbing my hand over my erection lightly, my hips pushing forward for more friction.

I moved my hand away from my crotch. As much as I wanted to continue touching myself, I would much rather touch the luscious body beneath me. I leaned down and trailed kisses down Levi’s neck and along his collarbone, stopping when I reached his nipple to swirl my tongue around the nub and suck gently. He twitched underneath me, making a sound of pleasant surprise. I could feel his dick growing harder under me, and I honestly didn’t think I’d ever be this turned on by another guy, but I guess you don’t know unless you try.

I ground my hips against Levi’s crotch, and each time I moved he let out a small moan. Moving up to kiss him, I nibbled on his bottom lip until he responded in earnest and wove my hands through his silky hair. I moaned into our kiss as he wrapped his arms around my back, his nails digging into my skin deliciously.

A thought suddenly hit me, and I pulled myself up into a sitting position when it registered in my mind. He looked at me questioningly.

“Lube,” I explained. His head turned to the side and he looked even more confused if that were possible. “Oh, uh, stuff to make things… uh, easier for us. Be right back,” I said, jumping off him and dashing across the hall in to the bathroom and digging through the drawers. I knew we had some in here. Hanji always kept some just in case; shit, she really was a genius.

_Ah, there it is._

I smiled as I walked back into the room, waving the bottle around, even though he probably still didn’t quite understand what it was for. I’d even gone half-hard because of my adventure to the bathroom, but that quickly changed when I looked at Levi, who had removed his pants and was now sitting on my bed in all his naked glory.

I crawled onto the bed and crossed my legs. He looked at me, then at the bottle in my hand. I couldn’t stop my eyes from traveling down his body. It had to be a crime to have such a toned chest with such perfect legs. Setting the lube aside, I brought my hand up to caress his cheek and he leaned into it slightly, though his eyes never left mine.

I kissed him again, laying him on the bed, then pulled away to trail kisses along his jawline before I moved down his chest. My fingertips trailed along Levi’s thigh and I heard him gasp; I remembered his legs were really sensitive. I kissed along his leg to the knee, finally leaning back and opening the bottle of lube. The sound alerted Levi and he opened his eyes and looked at me.

“This is going to feel really weird, and maybe a little painful, but it won’t last too long I don’t think.” I smiled nervously at him, he just huffed and closed his eyes again.

“Bring it on,” he stated.

I bit my lip as I poured a generous amount of lube onto my fingers. I really hoped I could do this properly. I let my free hand wrap around Levi’s dick, wanting to give him some pleasure while I was doing this. Slipping a finger into him, I could hear his breathing stop and he wriggled around to try and get comfortable.

“You okay?” I asked, pumping my hand on his dick.

He nodded and I took that as an okay to go ahead. I saw his fingers clench at the sheets and his toes curl as I added a second digit. I didn’t move for a while, watching his face as it scrunched up in discomfort. I leaned down and sucked on the head of his dick, swirling my tongue around him. He let out a surprised sound that ended in a moan as I felt him relax around my fingers.

Curling my fingers at different angles, I hoped I could easily find his sweet spot. I was quite happy when Levi let out a cry as his back arched. I didn’t give him time to relax as I brushed the spot again, his dick twitching and mouth hanging open.

“What was that?” Levi questioned through rushed breaths.

I chuckled, removing my fingers from him for a moment. “That was your prostate. I’ve heard it feels amazing,” I replied, pushing my two fingers back in with ease. He tensed for a moment before relaxing as I stretched him.

“Yeah, it feels ama—aah!” he exclaimed as I brushed over it again. I hadn’t even touched myself since I came back and I was hard to the point that it hurt. My patience was wearing thin, as well. When I felt everything was set, I slipped my boxers off and grabbed a condom, fumbling with the package and with getting it on myself. Shit was harder to get on than it looked, but I got it eventually. Thankfully Levi had no idea how it worked, either, so he couldn’t make fun of me.

I positioned myself between Levi’s spread legs, and I was honestly amazed at how he wasn’t embarrassed about this. Then again he wasn’t normal, so I guess that was why. Pouring probably more lube on myself than I needed to, I discarded the bottle and put the tip of my dick on his ass.

“Ready?” I prompted. I really hoped I didn’t hurt him too much. _Oh Jesus, Eren. Look how conceited you’re being about your dick size. It’s soo big it’s gonna cause him soo much pain!_ I groaned at my fluttering thought and almost missed Levi’s reply.

“Yeah,” he murmured, taking a deep breath.

Pushing into him, I heard his pained intake of breath and I was about to stop, but he told me to keep going. I bit my lip and pushed in the rest of the way. God, this felt fantastic. He felt so tight and warm around my cock. My body wanted me to move, but I forced myself to sit still while Levi adjusted to being filled. His brow was furrowed in what I could only assume was pain. One hand was biting his knuckles while the other gripped the blanket. It was a beautiful sight.

“It doesn’t hurt anymore, Eren,” he informed, letting his hand fall beside him as he turned his head to look at me. He licked his lips then, and I don’t think he realized how fucking hot he looked while doing that.

I pulled out slowly, planning to start this off slow, but the moment I started to push back into him I realized that I wouldn’t be following that plan. Thrusting quickly, I let out a long moan, calling  out Levi’s name. It took me a few tries to angle myself properly to his prostate but when I did I was rewarded by the heat-filled moan that left his mouth.

“Ere—aahh!” he called out as he threw his head back against the pillows, all the pain and discomfort from earlier gone. Levi was reduced to a shuddering mess under me as I thrusted into him.

Levi’s hips rocked in time with mine, his hands finding purchase on the headboard. My mouth hung open as I panted, my moans mixing in with Levi’s mewls of ecstasy. I felt my stomach start to knot and knew I was nearing my climax.

“Levi, I’m—ah, I’m close,” I panted.

“Nnn,” Levi moaned in response. He reached down with one hand and started stroking his dick in time with my thrusts, his eyes opening wide at the added pleasure.

A few more thrusts later and Levi was coming over his stomach, his body twitching as he rode out his orgasm and his mouth open in a silent scream. His ass twitched around me, and with a few more thrusts, I came, as well.

The room was filled with our pants as we wound down from our high. I pulled out of Levi which caused him to shudder slightly. I discarded the condom and climbed over beside him. He turned his head to me, reached up and kissed me gently.

“Happy birthday, Eren,” he whispered, smiling gently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully we'll be able to output chapters faster. I'm actually almost done writing the whole thing, it just needs to be edited. Then I get to work on my next fanfic that me and Lithi have been pouring our heart and soul over to create perfect scenarios for Levi and Eren. Which will be released soon after the last chapter of this fic.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was correct in the chapters coming out faster~ Lithi's power editing now so we can both get started on our next fic. Which the first chapter is already done for. The first chapter to that will be released before the last chapter to this fic. So look forward to that!

            I didn’t expect anything to happen today, Levi and I had been a little more cuddly lately (though only when he wanted to be), and we were just casually sitting in front of the T.V. watching that titan show which turned out to actually be really good. Levi had his legs draped over my lap as he lay back on the couch while my feet were placed on the coffee table.

            Mikasa was out with Annie, and Hanji was at work. It had been peaceful all day, and oddly relaxing. I hadn’t felt like this in a long while, not having to worry about anything. Well, other than my school work that was probably piling up since I hadn’t gone in a while, but that was nothing I couldn’t handle. Another thing I didn’t expect was the jab into my side that nearly knocked the air right out of my lungs.

            “Oi, Eren, are you even listening?” Levi accused, giving me a disappointed glare with his arms crossed over his chest. He was once again only in an oversized sweater; he hated the restricting feeling of shirts, and I highly doubted that would ever change.

            I shook my head. “No, sorry, I was lost in thought. What were you saying?” I asked. I watched him as he rolled his eyes and sighed at me, probably thinking what a shitty human I was, like he always told me. Though, I wasn’t the shittiest human, so it was okay.

            He was about to repeat what he had said when someone knocked on the door. I groaned, removing Levi’s legs from my lap, and stood, stretching as I made my way over to the door. Armin usually calls before he comes over, though not always, but he said he was busy today, so I wondered who it could be.

            That odd relaxing feeling I had earlier? Yeah, that was the calm before the storm, and that storm nearly hit me with all it’s power when I opened the door and looked at the face of the aggravatingly handsome man on my porch. My eyes widened and I actually took a few steps back in surprise. He had to be the last person I expected to see standing on my doorstep. I then remembered what he had said before we took Levi.

            “ _Have fun while you can, Eren. I’ll come for him eventually._ ”

            Sudden dread made my stomach drop and I honestly felt like I might be sick. I knew the answer, but I needed to speak to get the lump out of my throat.

            “What are you doing here?” I said. It wasn’t really a question, more like an accusation.

            Erwin laughed, “I’m here to collect what’s mine. I hope you’ve kept him in good condition.”

            I heard footsteps behind me. Levi must have gotten up. I could hear him coming. No, don’t come, he’ll take you away and I won’t be able to do anything about it by myself. I’m not strong enough to take on this guy. Man, I really wish I’d gone to the gym more. I was strong, but not strong enough, and I could see Erwin’s muscles through his sleeves. I knew he was stronger than me; I couldn’t fight him.

            “Eren? Who’s at the door?” Levi asked, coming around the corner from the living room, stopping dead in his tracks and shooting a hand out to catch the wall as he almost lost his balance. He looked up at Erwin, and I could almost see the shudder that ran through him. I couldn’t just let him take Levi. No, not after all that we’d been through. I had to take him back to the ocean, even if I loved him and wanted him with me. If he weren’t safe then I would have to let him go. Especially if that was what he wanted. I bit my lip as I put myself into a better fighting stance.

            “You’re not going to take him without a fight,” I said as confidently as I could. This man’s aura honestly scared me shitless. He demanded so much attention and power, it was insane.

            He seemed to be about to say something when Hanji’s vehicle came swerving up the road. I mean it, she was almost drag racing her car into the driveway. Erwin looked a little surprised to see her as she rushed out of the driver’s seat and stomped her way up the pathway. She actually looked pretty pissed. I hadn’t seen her actually pissed off at anything in a long time.

            “Erwin Smith, I am sorry if I am being rude, and I really hope this doesn’t affect my job, but you need to leave right now,” she demanded, standing a few inches from him and glaring at him viciously.

            “I will leave, once I take back my thing that I let Eren borrow,” he assured, gesturing towards Levi, whom I placed a protective arm in front of.

            Hanji shook her head. “I’m afraid that’s not possible because we are leaving,” she countered, grabbing my shoes and my wrist. I reached out and grabbed Levi, pulling him close to me so Erwin wouldn’t grab him, though I doubted the man would given his personality. She dragged me to the car, tossing my shoes into the backseat.

            “Hanji, where are we going?” I asked, glancing back to see Erwin standing outside our now closed front door.

            “We’re going to the ocean,” she said, moving the car the moment the doors were closed.

            I glanced at Levi and saw he looked really surprised. I figured he must be happy to be going back home. He’d stayed long enough in the human world. My chest clenched and oh, god, it had been a while since I’d felt this feeling. We drove in silence for a long way. I honestly don’t know how long it was, but when Hanji spoke up her voice made me jump.

            “This better be worth it, Eren, I might lose my job because of it.” She didn’t sound angry—she actually sounded calm, which was another emotion I didn’t see on her often. I felt a pang of guilt as she said it. I really hoped this was worth it, too. I sighed and leaned my head onto Levi’s shoulder while he watched the scenery pass outside the car.

 

            I jolted awake as Levi shifted. I hadn’t even realized I’d fallen asleep until I realized Hanji was just turning the car off. I noticed her run a hand through her hair as she sighed quietly, before turning back to Levi and me in the back seat, a smile on her face.

            “We’re here, you two. Time to get you home, Levi.” She smiled apologetically then. “I’m sorry for what I’ve done to you, but I hope in the end this experience was worth it.”

            Levi looked like he was about to say something, but Hanji clapped her hands together loudly and jumped out of the car. I stretched as I sat up, and wiped the drool that had dried on my chin. It had to be around five-thirty or six in the evening, I thought.

            Levi and I stepped out of the car, and I was immediately met with the familiar smell of the ocean, despite having only been here once as a child. I smelled it every night when I slept with Levi. It was actually refreshing how the smell seemed to cling to him no matter how much time he spent away from his home. I bit my lip in anticipation. He was leaving, and I didn’t want him to go… I shook my head, dispelling the thought. He was safer there than with me.

            I glanced at Levi and he had his eyes closed, breathing deeply. He looked at peace. More at peace than I had seen him anywhere, and that seemed to calm my mind a bit.

            “Hey, you two, come on!” Hanji called from half-way down the goddamn beach. I groaned and grabbed Levi, shaking him out of his peaceful state, and marched after Hanji. The sand moved like a blanket underneath me, coming between my toes and sinking beneath my weight. It was warm, but not too hot as the sun was well on its way to setting. I glanced back to see Levi was moving his lips, though I couldn’t tell what he was saying or if it was even English.

            Hanji led us to a rocky area that had a somewhat shallow wading area, the water was clear here since it wasn’t affected by the waves in the water.

            “This is where I found Levi,” Hanji said.

            I peered into the clear water. I could see snails and starfish and other little sea creatures. I suddenly thought of how Mikasa would love the artistic view of this scene. I honestly wished I had my phone to take a picture of it.

            “Eren, I want to show you,” Levi declared suddenly. I turned and gave him a questioning look. “I want to show you my home. I can take you there, you just need to trust me,” he continued.

            Panic ran through me. Go into the water? Go deep into the water? Where I couldn’t breathe or swim?

             _Oh god._

            My dreams came rushing back to me. The darkness, the cold, the fear.

             _Oh no, it’s so dark._

            I can’t see anything. Where was I? How did I get here?

            _It’s so cold._

_Where did the warm sand go? Oh, fuck, please._

_Why?_

_Why?_

_Why?_

            I was on my way to hell, that had to be it. I was going to die and I was going to go to hell.

          _Help me._

            I crouched down and placed my free hand over my chest. My eyes were wide, but I was staring at nothing. I couldn’t breathe. I was gasping for air, but I couldn’t breathe.

             _Help, please. Someone, help. Oh, god, I’m going to die._

             _I’m going to die._

            I started choking on something, coughing for air, but there was none. Why was there no air? Oh, god, the crushing weight on my chest was unbearable. Please, I need air.

             _I’m going to die._

            I could feel Levi’s arms around me, but I couldn’t see him. All I saw was the darkness of the water. I could feel the warmth, but I still felt cold. I knew I was breathing, but I couldn’t really breathe.

          _Help._

_I’m going to die._

_Oh, god, I’m going to die._

            “Eren, it’s okay.” Levi spoke those soothing words continuously. I could feel his hand on my head, gently brushing my hair. I shook my head. No, it wasn’t going to be okay. I was drowning, I was going to die, oh, god, I’m going to die in the water.

            I’m going to die. Help, please, I can’t breathe.

            He repeated those words over and over. I didn’t believe him at first, I wasn’t okay. Nothing was okay then, how could he think that? Why did he think everything was okay?

            Eventually the darkness and dread left me, and I could breathe again. I didn’t feel like I was drowning, like I was going to die. I was back on the beach. I heaved a shaky breath before standing with the help of Levi. I laughed a bit, and Levi looked at me questioningly.

            “Oh, I just find it funny how you’re the one helping me stand now,” I clarified. Looking around, I noticed Hanji wasn’t here anymore. “Where did Hanji go?”

            “I sent her away when you started freaking out. You didn’t even notice,” he replied. Wow, I’d really been out of it. I shuddered a little at the thought, trying not to think too hard about it or else I’d be back on the ground.

            I looked back at the water, trying my best to ignore my nightmares. Instead, I focused on the one really good dream I had, when Levi showed me around like he was offering right now. I nodded to myself, turning to look at Levi as I started to pull down my sweat pants.

            “Show me your home, Levi.”

            His eyes widened slightly before he stripped himself of my clothing and jumped into the water, splashing me in the process. Removing everything but my boxers, I slipped my feet into the water and sat at the edge for a moment. My fingertips gripping the rock I was sitting on. My heart was racing. I wouldn’t have anything to hold onto this time, this wasn’t like back in the tank. Levi interrupted my thoughts as he came back to the surface.

            “You won’t be able to understand me, and don’t worry about running out of air. Just squeeze my hand when you need to breath, okay?” he explained.

            I nodded. I could see the darkness of his returning tail. I forgot how pretty the color was since it had been a while since I’d seen it. He held a hand out to me and I took it, slipping into the water, a shiver running up my back. The water was pretty cold, but not freezing.

            “Also, I have to do something that might seem odd to you,” he said, his free hand reaching around to the back of my head. I was about to question him when his thumb caused me to close my eyes. I felt his tongue run over my eyes.

            “Ew, Levi, what the fuck!” I cried. What was he even doing?

            He chuckled. “I’m making it so your human eyes can see underwater without the pain or blur. It’s something mermaid saliva can do.”

            He licked my other closed eye, and I could feel the wetness spread itself over my eyes. God, this felt weird. He gestured for me to look underwater. I sucked in a breath of air and dunked my head, opening my eyes slowly at first before the oddly clear vision caused my eyes to fly open. I gasped, letting out bubbles of air, and lifted my head back up.

            “That’s actually really cool,” I said, a big grin on my face. His hand gripped mine harder and he brushed his tail against my legs.

            “Ready to go?” he asked. I could see the concern in his eyes; he knew my fear, and when I thought about it my heart started to race again. I bit my lip. I couldn’t be a wimp, I was already this far. I nodded at him to go.

            He smiled before pulling me under. I had just enough time to grab some air before plunging into the water. We were moving fast. I didn’t even know he could swim this fast. I had no idea where we could possibly be if we were to resurface.

            I could see darkness to my left, but I didn’t want to see that, so I shifted my eyes to the right towards a colorful reef. Levi stopped at the edge of the reef, and I realized I was running out of air. I squeezed his hand, he looked at me and holy shit did his eyes shine under water. He leaned in and pressed his lips to mine, filling my mouth with air. My eyes widened at the rush of air filling me. He never told me about this.

            I breathed in as much as I could then pulled back, signalling that I was good. He nodded and turned his head back to the reef. It looked fairly empty aside from a few fish. I wondered where the other mermaids were, if this were indeed where they lived.

            I was about to give Levi a questioning look when he opened his mouth and the weirdest sound came out. I gaped a little, my open mouth releasing a few bubbles of air before I had the sense to close my mouth. Levi sounded like a dolphin would, but longer in notes and a little bit deeper. It kind of sounded like singing without words.

            After a moment, he stopped making the sounds. I assumed it was his way of communicating with the other mermaids, and it was silent again for a moment before I saw mermaids emerging from different spots in the reef. They all seemed hesitant, though that might have been because of my presence. I glanced at him only to find that peaceful look on his face again.

            I noticed a couple mermaids start rushing over, and if we had been on land they probably would have caused Levi to fall over. He returned the hug of the one female mermaids that was clinging to him, wrapping one arm around her shoulders for a brief moment. A couple others had come over now and were looking at me with curiosity, a few of them were blatantly staring at my legs.

            Levi started with the dolphin-like sounds again, and the other mermaids started replying to him. I had no idea what was going on. It sounded really cool to my ears, but I wished I knew what they were talking about. It was a little muffled since my ears weren’t meant to hear well underwater—speaking of water, I was running out of air. I didn’t want to interrupt him, but it was kind of something I needed to live. I squeezed his hand gently, feeling the loose webbing in between his fingers against my hand.

            He stopped talking and looked at me before leaning in and pressing our lips together again, filling my mouth and lungs with air. Before he pulled away I felt his tongue poke my lips before leaning back and returning his attention to his friends. The girl from before had her hand over her mouth, blushing slightly as she looked over at me. Most of his friends just looked a little shocked.

            I’m sure Levi would tell me what he talked to them about later, so for now I just listened to the calming sounds that they made, occasionally getting more air from Levi. Eventually he showed me around and did a bunch of gestures to help me understand what was what around the reef. I started to get cold in the water, so I gestured for Levi to bring me up and he did.

            When we resurfaced my eyes burned a little, and it was even colder up here than it had been underwater. I shivered as Levi wrapped has hands around my waist to keep me up. The sun was just setting now, and it looked really pretty against the ocean surface.

            “I’m getting cold. I should probably head back,” I announced, suddenly remembering that Levi wouldn’t be coming home with me. My mouth twitched into a frown that I tried to keep off my face with no such luck. He nodded and we headed back to the cove where all my things were.

            Hanji was still nowhere to be found, though I could tell she’d come back since my shoes and a couple of towels had been set by my abandoned clothes. Levi pulled himself up beside me, pulling his tail up, as well, to rest beside him.

            “Eren.”

            “Hm?” I looked at Levi.

            “Remember those times you couldn’t hear me when I said something, or when you spaced out before Erwin came over?” He met my eyes.

            I wasn’t entirely sure where he was going with this. “Uh, yeah, I do,” I replied.

            He glared into nothing for a moment and sighed before speaking again. “Well, that time when you were done watching me and you said you would miss me, I said that I would miss you, too. While we were at your home earlier when you were spacing out I said… that I,” he paused, as if getting the words out was physically difficult. He opened and closed his mouth, glared at nothing again then let out a frustrated sigh. “What I’m trying to say, Eren, is that I want to stay with you. I love you.”

            My chest tightened at the words. Though it was just as painful as the other times, it was a different kind of clenching; I liked it. I stared at him in disbelief. I couldn’t believe he had actually said that. He had said that, right? I wasn’t imagining it?

            “Oh my god, Levi, I love you, too. I wasn’t sure if I could ask you to stay. Every time you think about home you look so peaceful and I didn’t want to keep you from all of this, but I don’t want you to leave. I’ll keep you safe and I’ll teach you everything you need to know. Shit, I’m so happy.” I hadn’t realized I’d said all that until Levi started laughing, actually full on laughing. His arms were clenching his stomach as his body shook with laughter.

            “Didn’t think you’d be so straightforward, human,” he admitted after he’d finished his fit, “but I don’t mind it like that.” He smirked and leaned in towards me. I met him halfway and we kissed for a long time. Just a simple kiss, but it felt like the most amazing thing.

            I shivered and remembered that I was still freezing out here. I decided to dry off and get dressed while Levi transitioned from tail to legs. Once that was over, Hanji had found her way back to the cove. She didn’t question why Levi was still here, but I was sure she would interrogate me later about what had happened and why he was still here, but she let us be for the moment.

            “Let’s go home, Levi,” I said, smiling brightly despite the ever growing darkness that was taking over the beach.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh shit hit the fan didn't it. :D


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ohohoho~!! Look at that! Told you all Lithi was power editing! I'm so proud of her!!  
> Short chapter though, just a little bit of fluff for you guys. A bit of sadness crept in here by accident but yea. Enjoy.

              I stared into my drawer. Why didn’t I have any decently nice clothes? I groaned, crossing my arms and staring accusingly at my dresser, as if the dresser was the cause of my clothing problem. Maybe I was thinking too much about it. I mean, I was just taking Levi out to buy some clothes for himself, since he couldn’t possibly keep wearing my clothes. Although seeing him in just my sweaters was one of the sexiest things I’ve ever seen.

              Oh man, the way the sleeves were a little too long for his arms, and how the fabric would slide off his shoulders. I smiled at the thought. Wait, how did I get to this thought? Oh! Right. Going out with Levi today to do things like buy clothes, and go eat, and spend time together.

              Holy shit, this was a date.

              I ran my fingers through my hair. Maybe I did need a haircut; it was getting quite long. I sighed. Okay, I needed to focus on finding an outfit for today. Why was I even freaking out over this!?

              I growled in frustration. This was causing me way more stress than it needed to. I couldn’t do this by myself, but I didn’t think Levi or Hanji would be much help, either, but Mikasa on the other hand. Yeah, Mikasa could help. She was good at stuff like this. I decided to go down the hall to her room.

              "Can I come in?” I asked through the door, knocking lightly as I asked.

              “Yeah,” came the muffled reply of my sister.

              I walked in, leaning against the wall and making a face. Her room always smelled weird to me, but I guess it was a smell she liked since she never never did anything to change it when I told her about it. It wasn’t really a bad smell, I just didn’t like it.

              She gave me a questioning look, and I remembered that I had come in here to ask for something.

              “Oh, yeah. Could you help me pick an outfit out for today?” I requested as I dragged my hands over my face. This was such a weird thing to ask your sister to do. Especially since I’d never done it before.

              She shrugged. “Sure. It’s for taking Levi out, right?” she reaffirmed, putting the book she had been reading down and sliding off her bed. I followed her back to my room where she proceeded to go through my closet and drawers, pulling things out and putting them back when she found something she liked better.

              I was completely useless in her search for my outfit for the day, so I just sat down on my bed. She did a really good job of not littering my floor with clothing, and for that I thanked her. It was enough of a pain in the ass keeping it clean with just me.

              “Okay,” Mikasa proclaimed, nodding. She seemed to be satisfied with her choice.

              Walking over to me, she handed me a white pair of jeans—holy shit, I’d actually forgotten I owned those—and a thin, tight, red sweater, along with a grey and white striped T-shirt. It felt rather plain to me, but it also felt like it was the best choice since I wasn’t even sure if this were actually a date or not.

              “Okay, so now that your wardrobe crisis is over,” Mikasa began, flicking her hand, “I have a very interesting book to read.”

              She left the room and I got dressed, attempting to fix my hair in the mirror. My attempt failed, so instead of doing something about it I decided to avoid the problem by grabbing my light gray beanie hat and sticking it on my head in a fashionable manner.

              Heading downstairs, I heard Hanji talking with Levi. Well, it was more like Hanji was talking at Levi. He gave responses to her ramblings of god knows what, but they were barely audible. Hanji didn’t seem to even notice because she was talking way too fast.

              I caught their attention when I walked into the kitchen. Hanji flew her hands up into the air after a second.

              “Ah, I’ll explain it later! You’ll understand it eventually, I’ll make sure of that.” She smiled her signature insane happy smile and left the room.

              I turned to Levi. “You ready?” I asked.

              He looked a little confused for a moment, probably at what Hanji had been talking about, before standing and nodding.

 

              We made our way to the next store at the mall. We’d gotten Levi the essentials; socks and underwear. Now it was on to buying him some actual clothes that fit him because, frankly, no matter how fucking sexy it was seeing my pants slide off his hips and my shirts fall off his shoulders, I knew he needed clothes for himself if he wanted to stay with me.

              “How’s this?” I asked, turning to Levi and holding up a long-sleeved shirt that had black and dark grey horizontal stripes on them. He seemed to ponder for a moment about if he liked it or not. Then grabbed it from me and added it to his growing collection of clothes.

              I grabbed a large amount of jeans and folded them over my arm; most jeans were the same so I didn’t need to ask if he liked them or not. I turned around to tell him we just needed to grab a couple more things, and he was gone. I turned around, scanning the store for him, but I couldn’t see him.

              I left the clothes at the counter and left the store to look for him. Where could he have gone? I told him not to go off by himself, but what does he do? Goes off by himself. Dammit, Levi, why can’t you listen? I went left first, walking up the storefront then back down, passed the store we had previously been in and down the other way.

              Worry pricked at the back of my head. What if something was wrong? What if Erwin had found us and taken him back to the aquarium? Panic ran through me and I bit the inside of my cheek to keep calm. That couldn’t happen. No, of course not. I tasted blood. I was on the edge of an attack by the time I found him, sitting on the edge of a fountain with his hand swirling casually in the water and his head hung low.

              “Levi,” I called, walking up to him.

              His hand stopped moving and he looked up at me, his face slightly pained. He ran his free hand through his hair, sighing heavily. “What if I made the wrong decision?” he wondered. “What if I’m not meant to live with the humans and I made the horrible decision of thinking that I could do that? Everything is so different for me. I don’t understand most of all this, and it’s just confusing and frightening.”

              It was rare for him to lose his composure this much. I crouched down and placed my hand on his shoulder, my other hand moving to take his hand out of the water. I could see the webbing beginning to come back since it had been in the water for so long.

              “It’s okay, like, you’ll understand soon. I’ll teach it all to you. I’m here for you, Levi. You can live here perfectly fine. You belong here because I love you.” I smiled at him. He frowned back, though I could tell he was less worried. We stayed there in silence for a little while longer, not wanting to go back to our day.

              “You hungry? We should get something to eat,” I suggested, straightening myself and scratching the back of my head. As if to lighten the mood my stomach decided to growl rather loudly, causing a few people passing by to laugh. Levi stood up quickly and linked his fingers through mine, squeezing lightly.

              “Don’t comment,” muttered Levi. I laughed.

              We made our way back to the store and I purchased his clothes then we made our way to the cafeteria, hands full of bags.

              “Anything you want to do after we’re done?” I asked, sitting down at one of the tables with my tray of food. Levi took a bite of his burger, debating the question for a short while.

              “No, I want to go back, I’m tired from all this walking.”

              I smiled faintly. We had been on our feet for a while and my legs were starting to get sore, so I could only imagine how Levi’s legs were feeling.

              We chatted about the clothes that Levi bought and how he still liked the feeling of my large sweaters. I laughed and told him he could still wear them if he wanted. Levi looked nice when his lips turned up into a small smile. It was even better when he laughed, though. Whenever he did, his hand would go to cover his mouth, so I wouldn’t get to see his whole face.

              “Oh, look, it’s the newbie who’s been skipping out on work, and look he even got a boyfrie-” A sudden, very annoying voice drifted in from behind me. I turned my head around to look at Jean, but stopped when he was staring wide-eyed at Levi, who in turn was glaring back at Jean.

              Oh shit, Jean knew what the mermaid looked like, so of course he would recognize Levi. Oh no, what was he going to do? I had no idea. I didn’t know this explosive douche well enough to know how he would react to this. I stood up, my hands raised slightly.

              “Jean, I know this is, uh, a little weird? I guess that’s what it is, but… how about you forget you ever saw him,” I implored. I wasn’t sure if my words were rushed, or too slow. I was planning out all the escape routes I could take if Jean decided to do something to Levi or run off and tell someone, but… all he did was nod.

              Wait, what?

              “Yeah, sure,” he agreed quickly, backing up a bit. His eyes glanced everywhere before landing back on Levi, then shifting to my face. “Never saw him. I don’t want any part of this; I would like to keep my job.”

              At that, he high-tailed it out of the food court, leaving me standing there with my arms held up like a stunned idiot.

              “Well, that was a small fish surrounded by bigger fish if I ever saw one,” Levi commented.

              I made a face and turned to him. “What?”

              He snickered, gathering his garbage onto his tray. “You wouldn’t understand.”

              I thought about it for a second, but it only just confused me more. Had to be a mermaid thing. I gathered my garbage up and downed the rest of my coke before tossing it in the trash. Levi called my name, and when I turned to ask him what he wanted he pulled me down into a quick kiss.

              “Thank you for taking me shopping,” he grumbled, though it sounded sincere. I could see the light traces of color on his cheeks as he stared at the bags in his hand.

              “Any time,” I replied, gathering up the rest of the bags and heading out to the car.

              Jean’s appearance had made me uneasy. What was Erwin going to do about all this? Could Hanji do anything against him? Word had to have gotten out that there had been a mermaid in the aquarium here. Although, anyone who wanted to see him was shit out of luck at this point. The whole way home I couldn’t get this sinking feeling out of my gut.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wooo! With this chapter the fic is basically done~! The next chapter is kind of like an epilogue, but that won't be released until the first chapter of my next fic is uploaded. Ah, I wish I could have spent a little more time writing the last few chapters but my mind is spent when it comes to this fic, but I didn't want to drop it. So I worked out what I could. I hope its still enough/

              I hadn’t seen Hanji in a few days. I was really starting to get worried about her. It was way too quiet in the house without her or Mikasa; it felt too empty and too big for just two people. As much as I hated living with them sometimes, I really missed them now.

              Hah, guess you don’t know what you got until it’s gone.

              I thought about how I could have lost Levi forever, and it stung my heart. I knew what I got, and it didn’t need to leave for me to know it. That much I knew. Levi was currently bent over the sink washing his hair, since having an actual shower or bath would start to make his tail come back and that would be a pain in the ass. Though from the looks of it, I could see that the tips of his ears had started to turn into points and some of the webbing on his hands was coming back.

              It was starting to get really warm outside and I was glad that spring was slowly turning into summer. I really disliked the cold.

              “This is such a time consuming thing,” Levi commented as he dried his hair with a towel. “Never had to do this in the water.”

              I laughed as I ate my bowl of cereal. “That’s because your hair is always wet in the water.”

              He shrugged, as if the water didn’t make a difference. It did; but I didn’t argue. Today, I needed to go and grab any work that had been assigned since I’d been away from school. It may have been the end of the year and my grades may have been at the top percentile, but I wanted them to stay that way.

              “Okay, don’t go outside, don’t answer the door, and don’t pick up the phone,” I repeated to Levi. He rolled his eyes and nodded.

              I stuck my bowl in the sink and left the house, not wanting to be out too long.

              I tried to think of positive things on the drive to campus, but that all went down the drain the moment Erwin entered my mind. I still had no idea what the bastard had done after we’d left him standing on our doorstep, so it made me worry that he was planning something huge to try and get Levi back, but then again, did he even know Levi was still here? He had known we were taking him back to the ocean that day, so maybe he thought he was gone and was cutting his losses.

              That would be fantastic because then I wouldn’t have to worry about it. My mind wandered to Hanji then. Where was she? She would often disappear for days at a time, but Mikasa and I always knew when she was at work. I wasn’t so sure she was at work since I wasn’t even sure she had a job to go to any more. I mean,  she did kind of steal something from her boss.

              I groaned out loud and put my head against the wheel, waiting for the light to turn green. I needed something to distract myself with, so I flipped the radio on. Bad idea. The news that was playing over the radio was something that made my blood run cold.

              “There had been reported slowly getting out into the general public about a half-human, half-fish hybrid at an aquarium in a small city in—”

              Word had gotten out, but he wasn’t there, so it would just die down… right?

              “—the mermaid seems to have been stolen and returned to the ocean, according to the aquarium owner, Erwin Smith, who regretfully informed all of the people who had yet to see the creature.”

              I turned the radio off. Enough of that. The news had only served to make me more on edge. It was just a simple news report, and hearing that Erwin thought Levi had been returned made me happy, but I still had this terrible feeling in my gut that wouldn’t leave. It made me feel sick to my stomach.

              I got out of my car and made my way into the lecture hall, getting all the information I needed from my professor.

              “Where have you been?” he asked me.

              I shrugged. “Kind of important things have been coming up so I’ve been unable to show up.”

              “All right, just make sure to turn those in next week.”

              I nodded and said goodbye, heading back out to my car and driving home.

 

              I pulled onto my street, and my eyes widened at the sight. There were multiple black cars parked on the road in front of my house, and I saw Hanji talking to someone in a suit that looked strangely familiar. That dreadful feeling I’d been feeling in my stomach was back and my mind was instantly wondering where Levi was. There were a lot of guys in suits around one car, and I silently begged that he wasn’t in there.

              I couldn’t get into my driveway so I pulled up behind one of the cars and got out. As if on cue, they all turned to look at me. Fuck, that was creepy. Hanji stopped frantically waving her hands around and looked at me, relief plastered on her usually upbeat face. She walked past the man she had been talking to and came rushing over to me, grasping my hands in hers and shaking her head quickly.

              “Eren, I’m so sorry. I can’t do anything to stop them from taking him.” She was talking so quickly that I almost didn’t hear her.

              Take who? Who were they taking? Also, who were “they”?  

              Were they taking Levi? The last question left my mind as I realized who they were taking, and I started to shake my head. It had been less than a month since he’d been free! He couldn’t be taken away now!

              “No,” I said under my breath. I took my hands back from Hanji and turned to the man she had been talking to, who looked down at me in return. Christ, he was tall, and so fucking familiar. Wait. No, it couldn’t be. There was no fucking way.

              “You’ve grown up a lot, Eren,” the man mused.

              It was him. Why now of all times? My hands balled up into fists and I glared up at the man from my memories as a child—the happier times.

              “What the fuck are you doing here!?” I screamed. I tried my hardest to blink back the tears of anger that stung my eyes. What was he even doing here?

              He stayed silent for a moment, contemplating his choice of words I guessed. Fucking bastard.

              “Eren, I had to leave. I’m sorry for doing it without helping you or even telling you, but my job demanded that I leave immediately. I couldn’t tell anyone, not even you or Mikasa,” he tried reasoning. His voice suddenly started pissing me off.

              “So you leave your kids!? You leave them right after their mother had died and dumped them in some shitty houses that treated them like shit when no matter how hard they tried to get help no one would listen to them!? Then we had to leave and—” I choked. My anger had boiled to the point where I couldn’t hold back the tears, but I also felt sad. I thought I had pushed all these feelings behind me. I thought I was over the fact that my dad had left me, but the moment I saw him again all the feelings rushed back and I was a child again, alone with his sister in a house with no family but each other.

              I was really glad Mikasa wasn’t here, though. She’d have hit him by now and I honestly don’t think that would have been a good idea given the situation that was going on. I felt Hanji’s hand on my back, but it felt awkward and out of place. She wasn’t used to comforting people. She could do it, but it didn’t mean she did it often. Though she was just pretty poor at human communication all together.

              “Eren, look, there’s nothing we can do about—” I raised my hand and cut him off. Wiping the tears from my face, I looked up at him again. There was a reason I was angry, and the main part of it wasn’t because he left me.

              “Where is Levi?” I asked calmly. He only gave me a confused look. My lip twitched. “Where is the man you took from my home!?” I asked again, my voice louder this time. I could see the men in suits were a little more on edge than they had been when I first arrived.

              “We’ve taken the specimen into custody,” he stated simply. I could see the guilt flash in his eyes.

              “And what gives you the right?!” I fumed, not at all calmed by his words. I ran my fingers through my hair, brushing it out of my face.

              “Eren, I’m part of the FBI,” he explained.

              My mind took a couple seconds to process his words and then my jaw dropped slightly. Hanji sighed loudly.

              “This was why I couldn’t do anything,” she said.

              My eyes shifted to the car that I assumed Levi was in. The windows were too damn dark to see inside of them, so I couldn’t actually tell.

              “It isn’t human, we’ve studied them—god damn, I shouldn’t be telling you this—and they can be very dangerous,” he tried explaining it to me. I glared daggers at him.

              “ _He_ is not dangerous. _He_ has a name and feelings, and I happen to love him. Now do you plan on taking yet _another_ thing from me?” I countered him, and he honestly looked taken aback by my words. Though, I wouldn’t blame him. I did just come out saying that I loved another man, one that wasn’t even completely human on top of that. Realizing what I’d actually just said made my ears burn with embarrassment.

              I looked down at the ground once I realized that I’d blurted that out pretty loudly. My anger washed away into embarrassment as the silence around us grew longer. Head still down, I glanced towards the car I thought Levi was in again. I hoped they hadn’t hurt him or anything. I bit my lip, not wanting the silence to go on any longer. It was killing me.

              “Say something, please,” I begged, clenching my hands together then releasing them. I wanted to punch something, I didn’t really care what it was I just wanted my fist to make contact with something.

              He sighed.

              Well, that was better than nothing.

              “I could talk to my superiors,” he began slowly, as if he knew he would get in shit for this later. “I’m only doing this because you’re my son and I’ve already caused enough damage in your life,” he added quickly after.

              The ghost of a smile played at my lips as I looked at him.

              “Thank you so much, sir,” Hanji cut in before I could say anything. She usually wasn’t this polite, but then again I’d never seen her interact with government people, so I wouldn’t have a clue how she did it.

              Grisha turned around and spoke quietly into a headpiece (it felt way too weird calling him “Dad”). I couldn’t make out what he was saying at all, so I started making my way over to the car I thought Levi was in. I was correct, he was indeed in that car since the men in the suits wouldn’t let me get close enough to touch it.

              “Let me see him,” I warned, a dark edge leaking into my voice. I had to make sure he was okay. I swore I would lose it if they’d hurt him.

              “I can’t let you through,” one of the guards said as he firmly planted himself in front of the door and in my goddamn way.

              Why was everything so difficult to do? All I wanted was to make sure that he was okay. I sighed in frustration, turning to look at Grisha who was still speaking into an ear piece.

              I jumped when I felt the pressure of a hand on my shoulder and nearly turned and punched the person who had surprised me, but it turned out to be Hanji. I gave her a weak smile once I recognized her. There was so much going on right now that I didn’t even know what to think any more. I scratched the back of my head, trying to sort my thoughts out.

              Levi was in the custody of the FBI. Shit, that was hard to think as of real. Next, was that somehow my dad had come back into the picture. How the fuck was he a part of the FBI anyway? I couldn’t fathom him being that responsible about work. Lastly, Hanji had finally showed back up at the house, which made me extremely relieved. I hadn’t realized I’d been so worried about her until the tension in my shoulders relaxed when I thought about it.

              “Don’t think about this all too hard, Eren,” Hanji said, breaking me out of my thoughts.

              I nodded. “Where have you been?” I asked her and she smiled widely at me.

              “I have been stopping Erwin from knowing that Levi didn’t go back to the ocean, and also trying to take him off his high horse.” She smiled deviously. “That’s partially why the FBI is here. Whoopsie?” She laughed nervously towards the end of her sentence. I tried to laugh, but it just came out as a tired sigh.

              “So… who is Grisha to you?” Hanji inquired. Her curiosity never ceased to amaze me. It didn’t matter how small the piece of information was, she always wanted to know everything about everything. If it was something she didn’t know, she wanted to know it.

              “He’s my father,” I answered coldly, not liking the taste the word left in my mouth. I didn’t think I could hate him, but I certainly wanted nothing to do with him at this point. Hanji’s mouth formed an “O” shape as she looked back and forth between him and me.

              “Now that I know that, you two do look quite a bit alike,” she commented.

              “Don’t remind me,” I groaned.

              Grisha finally turned to Hanji and me, and nodded. “My superiors trust me enough in my decision, and will let the creature stay with you. Do not let anyone else know what he is, or else I will be forced to take him.”

              I nodded, silently thanking that I was related to him. Since that was probably the only reason this was being allowed.

              “There are a couple of other matters that need to be addressed as well. Erwin has broken quite a few laws and will be taken into custody by the police.”

              This was fantastic. Everything that I had been worrying about for the past month had suddenly been taken care of. I couldn’t even explain how I felt in that moment, but when I saw Grisha motioning for the other men to let Levi out of the car my world stopped.

              When he stepped out of the car his hands were in cuffs. He seemed to be okay, which made me relax.

              Levi glared at the men around him, before looking at me. Grisha had turned to Hanji and was talking with her, but I didn’t hear it. All I focused on was Levi. I rushed over to him, making sure for the millionth time that there wasn’t a scratch on him.

              “Dear angel fish, that was annoying,” he grumbled. I laughed a little, glad to see that he wasn’t all that bothered by what had happened. They removed the handcuffs that were on him and he rubbed his wrists.

              I cupped his face with one hand and kissed his forehead quickly.

              “I’m fine, just mildly annoyed,” he assured me, giving another short glare to the men around us.

              “I’m just glad you’re okay,” I said as I turned to look at Grisha and Hanji. Her face was filled with shock and delight and I wasn’t quite sure why. It didn’t take long for me to find out why her face looked that way since she was running—more like skipping towards Levi and me.

              “You will not believe what Grisha just offered me,” she cried, clamping her hands onto my shoulders. I stayed quiet so she continued to tell me what exactly Grisha had told her. “If they are able to remove Erwin from his position—which will most likely happen because he’s done a lot illegal things—they are offering his position to me as owner of the aquarium and lab!”

              My eyes widened slowly as she explained and my jaw slackened in surprise. That was ridiculous, not only did she not lose her job for standing up to her boss, but she got his position. It made me feel better knowing that I hadn’t made her lose her job; even if it had been her own choice.

              “That’s… That’s amazing, Hanji!” I exclaimed, almost at a complete loss for words. She nodded quickly and I could almost see her buzzing with excitement.

              “I’m gonna call Mikasa and tell her everything that’s happened,” she informed me as she turned and disappeared into the house.

              I sighed quietly. I was amazed at how everything turned out all right. I wasn’t sure how to be completely honest, since I was mostly working on adrenaline and gut instinct. I scratched the back of my head and glanced at Levi, who was staring silently at Grisha. I was amazed at how he wasn’t all that shaken by almost being taken from here.

              I knew he had a strong will, but that was pretty insane. I looked at Grisha and for the moment I was glad that he was my father. Levi linked his hand with mine and squeezed. I could feel then that he was actually shaking slightly.

              “Are you okay?” I asked, looking down at him.

              He shrugged slightly. “Yeah, I’m fine,” he replied, leaning in and resting his head on my shoulder. I squeezed his hand back and kissed the top of his head. So maybe he wasn’t as strong as I thought he was, though I would never voice that statement in fear of being eaten alive.

              Grisha came over and he glanced between Levi and me for a moment before speaking. “I’m going to have to stick to protocol and have someone watch you for a while, but other than that you are free to stay here,” he said speaking to Levi.

              Levi nodded, but refused to cease his glare. Couldn’t blame him, it had taken him a long time to stop glaring at Hanji.

              I laughed then—not a soft laugh, no. I was laughing so hard that I had to clutch my stomach and bend over. It felt good, and I knew I was being looked at funny for laughing in this kind of situation, but I couldn’t care less right now because this whole thing that could have gone wrong at so many times, could have messed up and destroyed everything had somehow worked out. Everything was okay.

              No one asked why I was laughing hysterically, and it didn’t matter because I wouldn’t have told them any way. It was a silly thing to laugh over, so I wasn’t going to tell anyone.

              All the FBI agents got back in their cars and were starting to drive away; the only one that remained was Grisha.

              “Eren, if there’s any way I can make up for the time I wasn’t here...” He trailed off and I just shook my head.

              “I hated you for a long time because everything went to shit after you left, but we managed to find our own home and family and love. You don’t need to make anything up to me because there is nothing to make up. I can’t call you ‘Dad’ any more, but at least I don’t hate you like I used to,” I disclosed, biting my lip a little. I didn’t know admitting it would be that easy, but I could feel the weight lift off my shoulders and I felt like I might float away then.

              He looked as if he were going to say something, but just nodded in the end, got in his car and drove away. Then Levi and I were left on the front lawn of my house alone. I turned to him and smiled, scratching the back of my head in the process.

              “I guess… everything’s okay now.” I chuckled and Levi nodded slowly.

              Hanji came out of the house then, looking around for a moment as the realization that everyone had left settled in. “Where did… You know what, doesn’t matter. Mikasa is on her way and she’s going to grab Armin, as well,” she told us, giving up on the question of where the government men had gone.

              It was only moments later that I saw Mikasa’s car pull into the driveway, and she was jumping out of the car with a livid expression. Her head moved around as if looking for someone. Wait, of course she was looking for someone. She had sworn to beat the living shit out of Grisha if she saw him again, and I was thankful that he had already left.

              “Mikasa, he’s gone. It’s fine,” I said as I walked over to her. Armin got out of the car then and he glanced at me before resting his gaze on Levi. He must have heard from Mikasa what Hanji had told her. Mikasa let out a sigh and I could visibly see her shoulders relax.

              “I just can’t believe that…” she trailed off, shaking her head.

              “He’s the only reason Levi is still here, so just give him credit for that. We’re never going to see him again. As long as we can keep what Levi is a secret,” I explained, pulling Mikasa and Armin into a group hug. I needed this, I felt like I hadn’t spent enough time with my family. I caught Levi looking at us and laughed.

              “Come on, Levi. This is your family, too,” I called over. He tsked and looked away for a moment before walking over and wrapping his arms around my waist. Armin instantly wrapped his other arm around Levi, and Mikasa soon followed suit (though a little more reluctant than Armin).

              “Hey, why are we having a family hug without me!?” Hanji hollered and soon we were all falling to the ground as Hanji jumped onto us.

              Everyone screamed in surprise, but I only laughed and laughed. This was my family. I had finally found it. All of it.


	13. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have made you guys wait long enough for a chapter that has been finished and ready to go. I said before I was going to post this when the first chapter of my other fic is out, but I'm afraid that didn't go as quickly as I'd hoped it would. So I'm just going to post this, though I do hope you all keep track of me. Be it on here or on my tumblr Hellenaa-Heichou.tumblr.com
> 
> It was nice to write this story, even though I know I could have done more with it, I was just running out of inspiration to finish it and really didn't want to disappoint you guys. Regardless, I hope this is closure enough for you all!

              I linked my fingers through Levi’s. The sand between my toes was hot, but my feet had gotten used to the heat. I shifted my hold on the basket in my right hand. I glanced at Levi to find that he was staring out into the ocean. I could see the longing in his eyes. It had been four months since we were last at the ocean and that had been to let him go home. That hadn’t gone as planned.

              “Do you miss it?” I asked.

              He turned his head and looked at me, giving me a small smile. “Yeah, I do miss it,” he replied, “but not as much as I would miss it here.”

              I squeezed his hand as the realization that he was homesick hit me. I remember that feeling well. First when I had been placed in my first foster home, and second when I started living with Hanji. I missed my mom horribly those two times, and now that I was thinking about it I was getting a little sad. I wished I could visit her grave, but it was a really long drive to make.

              We walked in silence after that, just enjoying the heat and each other’s company. The ocean waves occasionally coming up to soak our feet. The sun was on our backs the whole time, keeping us wrapped in constant warmth. At least until we reached the cove that we had went to the last time. I pulled the blanket out of the basket and placed it down in a soft area before I set down the picnic basket, as well. Both Levi and I wiped up as much sand off of our feet before we crawled onto the blanket, getting comfortable.

              “Hanji’s doing good running the aquarium,” I commented, making awkward small talk. I was nervous for some reason; I wasn’t sure why, either.

              Levi chuckled as he sat beside me on the blanket, his hand resting over mine. “Yeah, she’s doing good. Better than Erwin,” he replied.

              There was that awkward silence again.

              Man, I really needed to get a hold on this. I was about to lean over and get the food out, but Levi stopped me.

              “Eren,” he whispered, his voice husky.

              I turned to look at him and he kissed me, his tongue darting over my lips quickly. I pulled back and looked at Levi surprised.

              “Wait, what are you doing...” I trailed off. It was kind of obvious what he was doing, but if he started kissing me like that only one thing was going to come of it and I wasn’t sure if I wanted it to get to that in public.

              “Having some fun.” Levi smirked, moving onto my lap and cupping my face in his hands. I looked up at him, about to protest, when he leaned down and kissed me again. I wasn’t exactly resisting, or against it, but when Levi noticed I wasn’t fully participating he decided to tilt his head and slide his tongue along mine, deepening the kiss further.

              “Levi—ng,” I mumbled into his lips. He was taking complete control of the situation. His hands went up and tangled in my hair, tugging a little at some knots in my hair.

              Levi groaned against my lips, grinding his hips into me. I gasped and bucked my hips up slightly. God, I was getting hard and I could not be getting hard right now. Even as I was thinking about stopping this then and there, I found myself moving my hands along his hips and up under his shirt. When Levi felt my hands slide across his skin, he smiled against my lips and arched into my touch.

              I couldn’t believe this was happening right then on a public beach, but to be honest I didn’t really care any more because the more we indulged each other the more I kicked rational thought to the curb. Instead, I ground my hips up against him and he moaned, pulling away from our kiss to look down at me. His eyes were glazed over, half closed, as he looked down at me with stray strands of his hair falling in the way.

              “You look amazing right now,” I whispered hotly, my breath fanning against his skin. My hands trailed to his stomach and up to his chest, and I pinched his nipples lightly, causing him to mewl like a kitten. I trailed kisses along his collarbone, sucking a little for each kiss until I got to his ear lobe. I pulled back and lifted his shirt over his head, tossing it to the side and working on his neck with my lips. My dick was almost painfully hard, my body electrified by every touch from Levi. I kissed him quickly and let my hands roam his body, prolonging the moment just a bit.

              “Eren,” he whined, urging me to move quicker.

              I laughed, flipping him onto his back. A hint of a smile played at his lips as he pushed my shirt up and off of me. A small amount of my mind was yelling at me that this was a bad idea because we were on a beach for fuck sakes, but an even larger part was screaming at me to take him apart and ravish him.

              My hands danced down his chest and I undid the button to his pants, pulling them down and kissing his leg; even after all this time his legs were sensitive as hell. I didn’t know if it was because we could be caught at any moment, but my heart was pounding in chest.

              I slipped two fingers into my mouth, sucking on them lewdly while maintaining eye contact with Levi. He groaned at my display and shifted underneath me, trying to push up into my hips. I chuckled and shoved my fingers into him, easily stretching him. I licked my lips while I rubbed my fingers over his prostate, watching him gasp into a drawn out moan. When he began to rut back into my fingers, I picked up the pace of my thrusts while purposefully missing his prostate just to tease him. Once I was sure he was okay, I pulled my fingers out and took my pants off.

              Licking up my hand, I rubbed myself and gave myself a few pumps to ease the lack of attention to my dick, gathering the precum and rubbing it down my shaft.

              Levi grunted at me to hurry up and I laughed comfortably.

              “Impatient, aren’t we?” I mused, gazing lazily at him. I rubbed my dick in circular motions around his entrance, making him whine and push against me. I closed my eyes as I pushed into him, reveling in his tight heat wrapping around me. I stayed there for a moment, just loving the feel of him around me, before slowly pulling out to the head and then slamming back in. Levi gasped, moving his hand to cover his mouth as I continued to thrust into him deeply and slowly.

              It was so hot out and the added heat from our bodies wasn’t helping. I wiped sweat from my forehead and locked eyes with Levi. He reached his arms up and wrapped them around my neck, trying to pull me down towards him, but I lifted him up instead and held him up in my arms.

              His hands tangled in my hair as wrapped his arms around me and his legs scrambled for purchase around my waist. I reached around him and held onto him by the ass, pulling him up as I slid out of him only to let gravity slam him down onto me as I thrusted in. The change in position made Levi even more receptive as he panted and moaned against me. I sucked on his neck and whispered his name. I could feel his digging into my scalp as he gripped onto my hair, enough to leave marks but not enough to hurt all that much.

              “Eren, I’m—ng, shit,” Levi croaked, his voice breaking.

              I nodded against his neck and quickened my pace, my hand going to his dick and pumping, smearing his precum all down his shaft. His hands pulled at my hair, tilting my head back so he could place his lips on mine.

              I hit his sweet spot and his body shuddered as he released, a high whine escaping from his lips. I felt his ass tighten around me and that was enough for me to go over, as well. I pushed Levi back down onto the blanket as I rode out my orgasm, mouth open in a silent scream.

              I wrapped my arms around Levi’s waist and hugged him, burying my face into his chest.

              “I love you,” I murmured, my voice muffled against his chest. I felt his chest vibrate as he chuckled, and he brought his arms up around me.

              “I love you, too,” he replied, kissing the top of my head.

              We lay there for a while, but I didn’t really know how long. We’d cleaned ourselves up and gotten dressed already, but I didn’t want to move despite the heat being almost unbearable and the sweat running down my face. Of course, though, this couldn’t last. My stomach growled loudly, yelling at me to fill it with food. I groaned, rolling over and looking at the picnic basket filled with our lunch.

              Levi sat up and reached over me, grabbing the basket and pulling out our food. I gave him puppy eyes and whined a little, opening my mouth for him to give me food. He gave me a sharp glance before shaking his head and putting a piece of sandwich into my mouth.

              “Thmk you,” I declared with my mouth full, pulling myself into a sitting position to grab more food.

              So much had happened. I’d been surprised by the existence of mermaids. I’d gotten to study them. I’d fallen in love with them, and now I would get to live my entire life with one. I wondered where I would be if I hadn’t met Levi. I shook my head quickly; I didn’t want to think about that.

              We ate our food and cuddled on the blanket, the sun setting against the horizon and the ocean and lighting the sky in a myriad of colors.

              “Your eyes remind me of the ocean,” Levi expressed suddenly.

              I snorted and propped myself onto my elbows and looked at him. “That was… really corny, Levi,” I admitted, laughing.

              He huffed and crossed his arms. “So I can’t be romantic sometimes without you laughing at me?” he accused.

              I shook my head. “Do it whenever you want. I like it.” I smiled and leaned over to place a quick kiss on his lips.

              “Good.”


End file.
